Extraterrestrial: Ecological Flaws?

[JamesU]

the national geographic channel could show such a crappy documentary.

I just saw "extraterrestrial" and it sucked. for those of you who haven't seen it, they give predictions about ecology on alien planets that is totally stupid..

they had small organisms that were yellow and odd-looking (I can't remember what they were called) they said in the second stage of their life, that they all group together into a population. except, they don't call it a population..they call it a new organism which is just a cloud of small organisms. this was a "super killer" they were extremely dangerous. when they deour another species (which is supposed to be the most intellegent species on that planet) they sprout out of it into a flower. then, the flower releases spores that are said to be new bodies in the first stage..

I'm not going to list every ecological flaw in this...

Anyone else see this?

 

[Adrian Baker]

Fortunately.. NO!

 

[Math Is Hard]

I'm glad to hear you didn't like it, yomamma. I asked someone to tape it for me and she wasn't able to, so I was feeling bummed that I missed it.

But the thing that you mentioned about organisms grouping together to form a new super-organism.. hmm.. I don't think it's all that implausible because, if I'm not mistaken, that's what a portuguese man o' war* "jellyfish" is - it's not one specific creature - it's several different organisms working together as a colony, each having different roles.

*weird purple

 

[whozum]

several different organisms working together as a colony, each having different roles.

This is true. I think a corral reef is an example.

 

[JamesU]

but a coral reef is not a single organism

 

[whozum]

Maybe not a coral reef, but I know there are some organisms that do have that behavior.

 

[JamesU]

organism= a living thing that uses organs to perform functions that keep it alive. several animals is not the same thing as several organs. unless these animals combine into stomachs and lungs...it is not an orannism...

 

[Math Is Hard]

Physalia physalis: of course, no one cares, but...

http://www.amonline.net.au/factsheets/bluebottle.htm

The Bluebottle or Portuguese Man-of-War is not a single animal but a colony of four kinds of highly modified individuals (polyps). The polyps are dependent on one another for survival.

The float (pneumatophore) is a single individual and supports the rest of the colony. The tentacles (dactylozooids) are polyps concerned with the detection and capture of food and convey their prey to the digestive polyps (gastrozooids). Reproduction is carried out by the gonozooids, another type of polyp.

The float is a bottle or pear-shaped sac that can exceed 15 cm. It is mainly blue, though its upper margin may show delicate shades of green or pink. It is a living, muscular bag that secretes its own gas, which is similar to air. The float has aerodynamic properties and it seems likely that sailing characteristics may be modified by muscular contraction of the crest.

 

[gerben]

It sounds like they have taken Dictyostelium discoideum as an example.

 

[franznietzsche]

organism= a living thing that uses organs to perform functions that keep it alive. several animals is not the same thing as several organs. unless these animals combine into stomachs and lungs...it is not an orannism...

Not if the individuals cannot survive biologically on their own.

 

[Kakarot]

they recently did the same thing on the discovery channel. looks like ng ripped off their show lol, but i bet they didnt have big names like george lucas, stephen hawking and michio kaku lol

 

[matthyaouw]

If I'm not mistaken, cellular slime molds aggregate to form a colony of cells at certain points in their life cycle, but are fully capable of living separately.

 

[Moonbear]

Oh dear...from your description, I wonder if I should dare look in the biology forum to see what sorts of topics and questions have come up after the airing of that.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Here's a link to the site for the show: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/channel/extraterrestrial/
(click on Planetary Investigation Lab)
just in case anyone is curious.

 

[Evo]

I thought the flying whale in the commercial was cute.

 

[JamesU]

Not if the individuals cannot survive biologically on their own.

but they can

 

[matthyaouw]

organism= a living thing that uses organs to perform functions that keep it alive. several animals is not the same thing as several organs. unless these animals combine into stomachs and lungs...it is not an orannism...

An organism needn't have organs. Wikipedia define an organism as "an assembly of molecules that influence each other in such a way that they function as a more or less stable whole and have properties of life."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organism

 

[JamesU]

this blob of species did not perform those functions. each one consisted of argans and performed it's own functios, without really iinteracting with the surrounding bodies