Puzzle Description:

A hydra, one of the earliest multicellular creatures, about to eat "dinner." There are no eyes, the black indicates where the mouth is, where the flagella flail about, seeking food.

#1: Teresa K (fasstar) on May 28, 2010 [SPOILER]

About 500 million years ago, single cell organisms began sticking together. This made them less likely to be eaten by larger single-cell organisms, and were more likely to survive. Some of these multicellular creatures reproduced by mitosis, and some by meiosis, which enabled them to evolve into organisms like the hydra. These strange but simple creatures are still around today.

Here are a few very short videos looking at hydras under the microscope:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqXkaZwiu6s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12OmszObAkM

Here's oen that shows how it contracts when it encounters food:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LLct6keqJc

Here's a hydra eating a live sea monkey:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgp7cutpO8o

You can learn more about hydras here at this children's science web site, where the explanation is easy enough for me to understand :-)

http://www.historyforkids.org/scienceforkids/biology/animals/sponges/hydra.htm

Thanks for another science lesson Teresa and another great puzzle!

This one was tricky for me. if you take a way the microscope it could be a view form inside a tornado.

cool! the "dinner" looks like it has no clue what's about the happen! great puzzle, teresa.

Thanks, Susan and Linda. I used to love looking through the microscope when I was a kid. Now I can look through other people's microscopes and watch such fascinating shows of nature.

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