Scientists have discovered that giant single-cell organisms, known as stentors, can cooperate with each other to improve their survival and feeding capabilities. In a study published in Nature Physics, researchers found that when stentors form colonies, they create stronger water currents around themselves, allowing them to suck up more food.
The discovery suggests that even simple organisms like stentors can form groups to address challenges and increase their chances of survival. The researchers used microscope video footage to measure the fluid dynamics as two stentors interacted in a petri dish, revealing an “odd pattern” where they drifted towards each other before moving away.
When stentors gather in colonies, they engage in “promiscuous behavior,” pairing with one another to find stronger partners and increase their feeding capabilities. This cooperation increases the colony’s overall flow velocity, allowing them to capture larger and faster-moving prey from farther away.
The study highlights how physical forces can influence biological evolution. According to Dr. Shashank Shekhar, the lead author of the paper, “the flow of water could have affected evolution.” The discovery has implications for our understanding of the evolution of multicellular life on Earth, suggesting that even simple organisms can exhibit complex behaviors to adapt to their environment.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/31/science/stentors-cells-evolution-physics.html