Nematocysts go 'sproinggg'

i-034caa8706b8aed844558eddb59279c8-nematocyst.jpg

Diploblasts are popping up everywhere this week. If you take a look at the phylogeny in this article, you'll see that one of the diagnostic features of the cnidarians is the presence of the cnidoblast, which contains a stinging nematocyst. This is the 'stinger' of the jellyfish…and now it's been caught on video. It's very cool—watch the movie!

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That's amazing!

See, this is the sort of stuff that really amazes me about the natural world - that something like this could have evolved at all is just brilliant.

Maybe I'm in the wrong career - I'd love to be able to understand what every second word in that post meant.

Creating phylogenies is super fun. I'm a maximum likelihood type of girl, myself.

By Nymphalidae (not verified) on 09 May 2006 #permalink

Thank you for the link to that article!

By curmudgeon (not verified) on 09 May 2006 #permalink