Can This Baby Rotifer Escape Before It’s Eaten Alive?

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This Loxodes magnus is large, so large that it was able to eat a rotifer, those funny animals we often see getting bullied by their single-celled neighbors. Except, that rotifer is moving. It’s alive, twisting and turning inside of the food vacuole it’s been stuffed into, and starting to fight back.
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[@journeytomicro]

Head to 80000hours.org/microcosmos to be sent a free copy of their in-depth career guide and sign up for their newsletter. This video was sponsored by 80,000 Hours.

[@thesilentone4024]

Can you show us some Extremefiles please 🙏.

[@flosslittle5231]

Thank you💚

[@hamnonox]

Pleasantly surprised to see one of my fav orgs sponsoring one of my favorite shows

[@magscat3161]

While I was pregnant, I was binge watching the play lists to this channel. I often rested my phone on my belly because a baby belly doubles as a table. Because I often fell asleep watching these videos, I'd play them over and over again. ...Now that the baby is here we have discovered that Hank's voice soothes her when she's fussy and she is mesmerized by the footage. She loves Journey to the Microcosomos. Thank you Hank, James, and the team!

[@DinnerForkTongue]

Does she react to Deboki's voice?

[@magscat3161]

@@DinnerForkTongue not really. She still likes the moving shapes but only Hank's voice has that baby silencing magic. She even prefers Hank over my husband.

[@DinnerForkTongue]

@@magscat3161 Dang 😶

[@CocoumKelsPerson]

This would make for a fascinating case study for the making of a professional in utero, as you've inadvertently made baby a microbiologist, lol. I think I did the same with mine, as I was a chemist when I was pregnant and she is heavily invested in it, even though I hadn't talked about it much during her infancy and toddlerhood, having become a stay-at-home mom.

[@CocoumKelsPerson]

Also, hope you and baby scientist are doing well a year later!

[@wannabewyvern]

this was honestly heartbreaking, I feel so bad for that poor baby who did all that work to escape from the cilliate only to be trapped inside the body of their mother

[@tomoyboy]

What a wild ride, its still to this day amazing to me how there is this entire universe of creatures living, dying and being born just out of our sight. Love your work guys!

[@rotifer]

*Many beings question the fearlessness of us Rotifers. Why we aren't screaming in terror when being captured by an Amoeba or caught in the jaws of a Stentor. The truth is, all of those tragedies pale in comparison to a Mother's wrath. After all, Mama Rotifer always told me that she brought me into this world and she can take me out of it. Never question Mama Rotifer.*

[@monkemind420]

😓

[@sudstahgaming]

Hail baby rotifer glorious lord

[@megatronyeets]

The great Rotifer hath spoken.

[@Blueface69420]

Who are you

[@CrossbredManiac]

NEVER QUESTION MAMA ROTIFER

[@chillsahoy2640]

You've made me feel emotionally invested in a microscopic creature, the sort of creature I would easily kill without a second thought if I'm cleaning the house or disinfecting the kitchen counter.

[@plane15man]

I've never shed a tear over a rotifer before today.

[@SciShow]

This was riveting. Thanks for the incredible story, JTTM team!

[@KalebPeters99]

It's funny how attached we can get to a little microbe with just a bit of good storytelling and some whimsical music ✨

[@electricharmonyac7354]

Needs your voice Mr Scishow. Her voice is pretty but its not the same. Your voice and Wongs synth "tickles" make these videos magic

[@Bladavia]

I've never rooted so hard for a microbe in my life

[@eddyb5980]

The dramas captured at such microscopic levels are always astounding to me! This video in particular has elements of story and irony that you seldom see in modern cinema. The fact that the carcass of its own mother kept it safe in the food vacuole to the point where it could escape the Loxodes only for that same Mother’s carcass (ps great name for a band) to be the poor infant Rotifer’s inevitable undoing by keeping it trapped after its initial escape is amazing! Keep up the great work @JourneytotheMicrocosmos , these videos make me want to quit my day job and become a microbiologist!

[@nyrdybyrd1702]

Publicist perhaps?. if not, could have a combo calling.. excellent writ, Eddy. 👍

[@AlfredPros]

This was the most intense and emotional journey ever from Microcosmos. Absolutely awesome find and I'm glad I watched the whole thing!

[@Catastropheshe]

There was one about sudden death by getting dissolved too 😶

[@IchorX]

What an incredibly powerful and thought-provoking story... The microcosmos are so surreal to us macroscopic creatures, yet they can still show us life's poetic duality in its immense cruelty and beauty, coexisting as if it were only ever so. Such a breathtaking video, the best one on this channel in as long as I can remember. I'm at a loss for meaningful words and I can only give all of my praise.

[@charleycurtis3954]

the rotifers survival instinct was fascinating, something so small, yet capable of something like that was incredible to watch, it was heartbreaking to watch the failure of the baby rotifers survival, and i must admit , made me sad. Thanks for the great videos as always

[@zekayman]

I've never felt so profoundly sad for a microorganism. Imagine your own mother saving you only to be the very cause of your demise.

[@ellium1147]

Oh wow.. that was emotional.

[@spiercephotography]

I’m 2 minutes in, and i’m cheering on the rotifer 😱 its like an alien movie. Edit: whoa, fascinating and sad

[@Marispider]

I thought this video was being overdramatic. I did NOT expect to have my jaw actually drop when that turn of events came. Absolutely insane that this was all caught on video, it's amazing.

[@Skeptical_Numbat]

I've watched lots of these trips into the Microcosmos, but it only rarely strikes me that these organisms lack nearly all of my senses, knowing only touch & smell/taste (these two senses being perhaps still intertwined at their level of development). A rare few may include a rudimentary awareness of light/dark, but more functional vision eludes them... Their entire existence is in darkness, knowing only what contacts their cilia/skin, other sparks of life only a jostling movement in the dense fluid medium surrounding them. Do they smell/taste the presence of approaching death from a predator, or sense the trail of a potential mate? It's surprisingly difficult not to anthropomorphise these organisms, giving them a complexity of consciousness as we observe the trials of their lives. Do they 'feel' or 'know' at all? They do certainly far more than just react, so I suspect that in their own infinitesimal way they do have some awareness of self - which is both wondrous & fascinating.

[@sianmilne4879]

Reminds me of "Lineland" from the movie/book Flatland! How consciousness and awareness would be different with different senses/dimensions 🤔

[@Sevenigma777]

My lord this was one of the most nerve racking suspenseful things I have ever seen in life. Plus that music made it all the more intense lol

[@GordonFreechmen]

More gripping than most Hollywood films today

[@brendanhall3738]

Aye, I ordered a microscope from your store and just got it today. I’m excited to use it. Thank you for your work

[@alanwelch9216]

Incredible story's happening all the time in the micro and macro cosmos's

[@pattiwicksteed3731]

Wow! This footage demonstrates the expertise James brings to Journey to the Microcosmos. To maintain camera tracking while constantly adjusting the focus - amazing. Thank you all so very much for this channel. Epic.

[@HSPGelton2]

Best one yet! Thank you, James, for the time you put into capturing these incredible moments.

[@Colaris99]

I am amazed that a micro creature has a developed enough nervous system in order to sense danger and enage a fight/flight reaction. I never knew, great video.

[@jackz4665]

I've given a like because you've put the um measure in the bottom right and the magnification in the top left... This is the only video I've seen caring about it, thank you a lot it gives more understanding about the size of the organisms we are watching

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

Wow, this definitely took a turn I didn't expect, and then took another turn I didn't expect! Though this lady's voice did a good job at the task at hand, it definitely wasn't Hank's soothingly velvet voice. I often plug in several Microcosmos videos in a row, and get soothed to sleep by that velvet voice! Thanks, ItM, for what you do! ❤️ ❤️

[@KaitoKR-er4ii]

There are many lessons to be learned in this story, one of them is to never celebrate early, and despite all the effort you make you still may fail.

[@securatyyy]

Who needs sleep when there are unborn rotifers to mourn?

[@SitnaltaErif]

I don't think I've ever been so gripped by something on KZbin before until I watched this. I was utterly glued to my phone screen. It's so fascinating to watch the drama we're used to seeing on nature channels at the micro level. I feel bad the little guy didn't make it. Once it managed to get free, I was ready to cheer. But it was an amazing effort to stay alive.

[@maryannswanson3832]

Wow that was intense! All that work to get out! Then being stuck! I was rooting for it! Amazing thing to catch on camera. BRAVO 👍

[@peterkraus2249]

Talk about a plot twist at the end!

[@fredericfillion6148]

This was riveting, many thanks!

[@chillausmc]

Well that was better than any TV program. Skill and patience for the footage. Bravo. Great story telling blended with awesome visuals. Im have to see what is living in my fish pond..

[@Thor_the_Doge]

I was not expecting to see a sad story of defeat, fighting back, success, triumph, escape, a plot twist, heartbreak, giving in and true defeat while watching a goddamn video about microscopic creatures

[@TheRogueWolf]

Opening: "Jeez, you two, get a slide!"

[@mewkaryote649]

It's terrifying that a single celled organism can eat a multicellular animal.

[@florato9387]

I'm now petrified that my digesting food would fight back and tear out of me...

[@Blackmark52]

*This one was a bit of a nail-biter* and no Hollywood happy ending, which to be honest I was expecting.

[@ira6133]

After watching this chanel I started notice that I no longer perceive a drop of water as an ordinary thing, instead I see it as a whole another universe full of life. There's so much fascinating things going on around us that we don't even acknowledge.

[@Tanookicatoon]

Amazing how many of these things must end up in your stomach whenever you drink anything.

[@kenchesnut4425]

Wow.. ..the writing and narration and music...set the mood...FANTASTIC...MUCH LUV FROM N.AUGUSTA S.C

[@Lou-Mae]

Welp, so now I can say that I've cried at the death of a rotifer.

[@leyrua]

"seems like a small miracle" Microscopic, in fact.

[@lonewretch]

Feeling loopy from a lack of sleep, that was the freakiest thing I've ever seen. I kept seeing a tiny human stretching, even with a face at times, and then deforming back into a nebulous blob.. Poor wee Mister Geppetto, no Pinnochio to save you from the whale.

[@1.4142]

Most intense episode ever.

[@SkywalkerSamadhi]

Damn. Made me tear up over microbiology. Well played, James and Lady Hank. Well played.

[@clintparsons3989]

I’ve never been so emotionally invested in a rotifer.

[@suzannegroenewald9964]

Wow! What a riveting story! That was amazing, thank you for sharing this amazing story with us.

[@JossOwX]

This is the most intense episode ever

[@Kammerliteratur]

wow. stunning. and yet so depressingly tragic.

[@Fregmazors]

What astonishes me about this is when I start to wonder whether the rotifer was aware of what was happening to it or not. It really seemed to be making the decision to dig its way out; Its actions seemed deliberate. So Is the rotifer acting to defend its own life, thereby indicating that it is _aware_ of of its predicament and capable of some degree of self-awareness? Or are all of its actions and movements purely predetermined responses to light, contact and pressure, which cause changes in biochemistry and fluid dynamics, collectively affecting all of the cells that make it up, which we interpret as Rotifer Escape Plan Alpha?

[@eroraf8637]

While it’s hard to quantify awareness even for macroscopic animals, it’s more likely that rotifers do not possess more than the most basic awareness of their immediate surroundings. They almost certainly do not possess the kind of self-awareness that even insects demonstrate. This is not at all surprising when you consider that rotifers have only ~200 neurons, whereas a typical insect brain has about a million and human brains have about 80 billion neurons.

[@joemcdabster150]

This is why you were told to always thoroughly chew your food

[@massimookissed1023]

_"Get in mah belleh !_ _I'm higher up tha foood chain than yoo !"_

[@suongongnhu9109]

11:31: rotifer escaping loxodes *Meanwhile:Stentor swims by*

[@Nik.No.K]

Wow this was a roller coaster ride

[@everettehungerford2858]

Wow, what a parable.

[@LordBummingtonThe3rd]

A cruel twist to make the grecians weep

[@shelavery7833]

This absolutely emotionally destroyed me

[@ProjectDarkWolf]

What a journey this was...

[@Mrcheekymonkeyisback]

7:38/7:39 whats that pink organism?really curious about that thing...why pink? maybe do a video covering these odd things

[@AmericanCaesarian]

This was a baby rotifers revenge

[@jebus6kryst]

Wow! That story was more traject than anything from Shakespear.

[@massimookissed1023]

Have you read Romeo & Juliet ?

[@anthonyhaynes8738]

"I'll keep quiet and chime in as the events take place" *talks the entire video* haha how interesting indeed

[@anthonyhaynes8738]

I was wrong

[@MrGustavier]

Unbelievable images. I am so glad you're out there.

[@cba99775533]

Utterly amazing footage!

[@eatemadfanaee5954]

meanwhile her momy:jack I always told you, you should chew your Rotifer before swallowing it

[@borischan5252]

Holding hand, vore, guro, unbirth... all in one video... wow....

[@osmia]

Well, that was intense!

[@oneshotme]

Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up

[@nerdymaple2637]

This whole thing seemed very poetic somehow.

[@Robert-xp4ii]

I thought another was going to eat it right after escaping the first by how it was worded. Poor thing. "But I don't wanna be a sammich!"

[@Keepturbo]

Hold up, where is Hank's ASMR narration...

[@I.____.....__...__]

Unfortunately, this was one video where Hank's ASMR voice was most required. 🤦

[@bradleygibson4558]

I like her voice better. Who is she by the way

[@KingXOreo]

Recommended by SciShow and now a subscriber!

[@nickcosimano5028]

Best video in a while, and on my birthday. Thanks for the present.

[@wendyitw5003]

I’m kinda having an indigestion while watching this ... still, I can’t imagine the “discomfort” this loxodes went through ...

[@AlexanderRoux]

This was incredible. Thank you for my Tuesday evening relaxation

[@albertmarti2718]

What a plot twist!

[@wittywarbler1117]

Holy shit what a fuckin twist, god damn. Awesome

[@Efsiksotu]

Very interesting

[@Moishe555]

That was jawdropping.

[@NewMessage]

Well now I'm depressed. Must be Monday.

[@calvinwitt955]

this one made me cry

[@skivvy3565]

Good thing we knew what was gonna happen and there was no suspense and she reminded us exactly how it was going to be ok a few times throughout

[@lilheinz9496]

Lol clearly u didn’t watch it before commenting lol that was foolish

[@suongongnhu9109]

What’s that armored ciliate at 13;54?

[@MrMegaPussyPlayer]

7:57 Nah. It looked to me as if the rotifer punched through the vacuole in the last set of movements.

[@tecumsehcristero]

That’s awesome the son avenged the mother

[@jenniferbailey2214]

And I thought I had problems!!! So amazing, great job James!!!

[@notLacrimariaOlor]

*Rotifers are my favorite snack.*

[@kartikeypatel7426]

Well information. Good show. Well show.

[@user255]

Brutal af.

[@LDrosophila]

i would think slow digestion would be a terrible nightmare

[@sentientflower7891]

Incredible as are all of your videos, and the book, too!

[@Steaphany]

You need to do a series of how=to tutorials for subscribers to aim their microscopes at puddles and video record what they find. If just 1% of the subscribers here start recording what they see, that will be 6000 to 7000 new views on the microcosmos. Just imagine the potential for new species identification and the capture of rare events

[@tobiaswebermartins7639]

that's amazingly heavy and heavily amazing

[@shiva72945]

That's why you always have to chew your food well.

[@CocoumKelsPerson]

Was the battle of the loxodes and rotifer lost by the loxodes, though? It had successfully digested the mother to nothing but an exoskeleton, so surely it got at least a good portion of the nutrients it was looking for. It lost the extra nutrients left in the surprise baby, though. I'm just hypothesizing. I'm a chemist, not microbiologist... Rotifers are quickly becoming my favorite animal, though.

[@SoFlyVA]

How ironic and what a plot twist

[@bludeetu321]

I feel a bit idiotic, but there were tears. So sad! And I'm a biologist, I understand that this was not inherently good or bad. But I had a few little tears anyway, because it was a baby and it tried so very hard.

[@kurtflint64]

Wonderful! The microverse has chestbursters just like the movie Alien!

[@emmamcphersonofficial]

My heart. Is broken.