Click for "Microbes After Hours" videos
Scientists called to the scene, however, put any fears of menacing goo or alien creatures to rest by identifying the mass as an unusually large (46 centimeters or more than 14 inches in diameter) plasmodial slime mold.
Slime molds spend most of their lives independently, but during food shortages, they swarm and aggregate into an enormous single cell.
Slime molds have traits like both fungi and animals. They have very complex life cycles involving multiple forms and stages. During good times, they live as independent, amoeba-like cells, dining on fungi and bacteria. But if conditions become uncomfortable—not enough food available, the temperature isn't right, etc.—individual cells begin gathering together to form a single structure. This happens when the cells give off a chemical signal that tells all of them to gather together. The new communal structure produces a slimy covering and is called a slug because it so closely resembles the animal you sometimes see gliding across sidewalks. The slug oozes toward light. When the communal cells sense that they've come across more food or better conditions, the slug stops. It then slowly does a kind of headstand. Cells in the slug now begin to do different things. Some of the cells form an anchor for the upended slug. Others in the middle of the slug begin making a stalk and some at the tip turn into what's called a spore cap and others become spores in that cap. When a drop of rain or strong wind knocks the spore cap hard enough, the spores go flying out. These spores are like plant seeds. Each of them becomes a new amoeba-like cell when they land and each goes off on its merry way.
Slime molds were once considered fungi, but unlike fungi, they can move, and their cell membranes are made of different stuff.
Slime molds are made up of individual cells that form an aggregate mass. In their visible, aggregate states, they look like blobs, gooey or foamy masses, spilled jelly, or even dog vomit. They may be bright orange, red, yellow, brown, black, blue, or white.
These large masses act like giant amoebas, creeping slowly along and engulfing food particles along the way. If a slime mold aggregate is diced up, the pieces will pull themselves back together. The blobs can navigate and avoid obstacles and if a food source is placed nearby, they seem to sense it and head unerringly for it.
There are two kinds of slime molds. Plasmodial slime molds (the most common kind) share one big cell wall that surrounds thousands or millions of nuclei. Proteins called microfilaments act like tiny muscles that enable the mass to crawl at rates of about 1/25th of an inch per hour.
As long as there is enough food and moisture, the mass thrives. But when food and water are scarce, the mass separates into smaller blobs. The Plasmodium forms stalks topped by sphere-like fruiting bodies that contain spores that are carried by the rain or wind to new locations.
Cellular slime molds also produce spores, but these germinate into amoeba-like cells. The cells happily go their individual ways, as long as food and water are available.
When nutrients and moisture are scarce, individual cells send out a chemical beacon to attract other cells of the same species. The cells join up to form a mass that looks and acts like a slug to take them to a more favorable location.
Cells in cellular slime molds retain their individual cell walls when they form a mass, so the visible slug is actually a collection of hundreds of thousands of individual cells joined together.
Slime molds eat decaying vegetation, bacteria, fungi, and even other slime molds. They are most commonly found in forests.