Voting with flagella

Wierdest...thread title...ever

Radiolarians don't have flagella, but some of their food items do.

What's nifty about them is species' fossil remains are readily ID'ed, and they have narrow temperature ranges. So marine sediments paleo proxy temperatures have a signal independent of those (somewhat controversial) isotopes.

This movement thing only works of their preferred food moves as well. That was somewhat expained in your link

Also, their silicate shells are amazingly diverse and beutiful. Images in your link are the pits. Want beauty?

Radiolaria.org > Web Links

There have been (commercially unsuccessful) attempts to create macro versions as Christmas tree ornaments. A test of glass-blowers' skill.

 

Enough with the flagella. Basta! 'Radios' don't have them, and if you 'lived in a glass house' you wouldn't either. Flail + sharp edges = maladaptation.

Instead they float with "frothy vacuoles and lipid droplets" (channeling wiki because I always like the word frothy). Probably they can go up and down, following food and avoiding predators, by (somehow) modulating the frothiness or pooping lipids. I do not know. But in terms of horizontal motion, they got nothing. Nothing!
The ecological literature has many reports of species recently changing their ranges. Fair enough. In some, measured temperature changes seem clearly linked. Fair enough. But in others, no significant T change is reported. The (top) radiolarian study is just one example of 'low data/high conclusions'. I wish ecologists would divest themselves of this and leave it to the noisy media.

Another example popped up today. a species of earthworm (voting with its wriggling) is now present in Ireland; previously a big deal in France. The authors hint at climate change, but have not done the (sorry) obvious hypothesis tests. How much has your soil T changed? If you introduce the worms to locally cooler or warmer soils, do they persist? Practically, this is easier for earthwormology than for most others, because you can electrify the soil and exclude them. Then introduce your candidate and see what happens.

Fundamentally, I feel unhappy when ecologists (my kin) chase abulances instead of testing clear hypotheses. Maybe more now, just because I am just 40% recovered from some damn rhinovirus/cocksakievirus. Posting too much on PC becaue I haven't the brainpower to do my imporatnt work. There, you see? I insult PC. When I'm stoopid, I post here. When not, I do my work.

No daily marathon swim, dammit.