Mon Dieu, beware the blob!
The Paris Zoological Park’s newest resident, which goes on exhibit Saturday, is a unique slime mold with 720 sexes and the ability to split into different beings before glomming back together, according to a zoo statement.
“The blob is a living being which belongs to one of nature’s mysteries,” explained Bruno David, the director of the Paris Museum of Natural History. “It surprises us because it has no brain but is able to learn . . . and if you merge two blobs, the one that has learned will transmit its knowledge to the other.”
Most intriguing is that the blob’s favorite food is reportedly oatmeal. After being grown in Petri dishes, it was grafted onto tree bark and placed in a terrarium.
“Acacia trees, oak bark and chestnut bark are its favorite places,” said zoo spokeswoman Marlene Itan.
Researchers have pegged the blob’s origin to about 1 billion years ago. The single-celled creature was spotted in 1973 by a Texas woman who noticed the quickly expanding creature growing in her backyard. But it died soon after, reported The New York Times at the time.
According to a 2016 Proceedings of the Royal Society study, one biologist verified that the creature with the scary-sounding scientific name Physarum polycephalum was capable of figuring out the quickest route through a maze as well as solving other problems. It also has learned to steer clear of poisonous substances.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect regarding the blob is that only light and dearth of water can kill it, according to the zoo. And it can even hibernate for years when sensing danger.
