Vorticella - fastest moving organism?

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dragonblade
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Vorticella - fastest moving organism?

Post by dragonblade »

I reckon that Vorticella could be a contender for the fastest moving life form or perhaps one of the fastest. Though when I read online about what is believed to be the fastest examples of living things, Vorticella is not mentioned. Actually, no microscopic organisms are mentioned. What makes these lists are usually the Peregrine falcon, cheetah and insects.

What really impresses me about Vorticella is the speed at which it retracts. It is blindingly fast. Too fast for our eyes to register. I find it hard to believe that any other life form could be faster.

Lou Jost
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Re: Vorticella - fastest moving organism?

Post by Lou Jost »

I think things that use physics to give them speed, like the Peregrine, have a huge advantage over anything relying on muscles. And creatures in a less dense and less viscous medium like air will also have an advantage over creatures in a dense viscous medium.

I bet that if a Peregrine passed under your miscroscope at 200mph it would look really fast!

viktor j nilsson
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Re: Vorticella - fastest moving organism?

Post by viktor j nilsson »

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2134872/

Quote:
When a Vorticella cell is frightened, it can contract its tail, which contains a striated fiber called the spasmoneme, at a rate of 10 cm/s.
...which converts to 0.36 km/h. Which is of course not very fast compared to a cheetah.

But on a relative scale (say, body lengths per unit time), Vorticella is quite impressive.

dragonblade
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Re: Vorticella - fastest moving organism?

Post by dragonblade »

viktor j nilsson wrote:
Sun Dec 20, 2020 8:21 am
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2134872/

Quote:
When a Vorticella cell is frightened, it can contract its tail, which contains a striated fiber called the spasmoneme, at a rate of 10 cm/s.
...which converts to 0.36 km/h. Which is of course not very fast compared to a cheetah.

But on a relative scale (say, body lengths per unit time), Vorticella is quite impressive.
That is interesting when you put it into perspective. When a cheetah is running, you can clearly see it's movement from point A to point B. But with Vorticella, I cannot see the movement of the contraction of it's tail in real time. My eyes don't register it. I'm not sure if the shorter distance of travel has anything to do with Vorticella appearing to move faster than a cheetah when in actual fact, it is not faster.

Lou, a Peregrine falcon flying under my microscope would probably give me quite a shock!

dragonblade
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Re: Vorticella - fastest moving organism?

Post by dragonblade »

Another speedy creature worth mentioning is the mantis shrimp. Apparently, it's strike is equivalent to a low caliber bullet and can even smash glass.

Lou Jost
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Re: Vorticella - fastest moving organism?

Post by Lou Jost »

I'm not sure if the shorter distance of travel has anything to do with Vorticella appearing to move faster than a cheetah when in actual fact, it is not faster.
Don't forget, you are looking at it under high magnification. A Peregrine passing through your scope would appear to move at 2000-10000mph. That's faster than a bullet.

iconoclastica
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Re: Vorticella - fastest moving organism?

Post by iconoclastica »

Lou, a Peregrine falcon flying under my microscope would probably give me quite a shock!
Which is nothing, compared to how that falcon would feel.
--- felix filicis ---

dragonblade
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Re: Vorticella - fastest moving organism?

Post by dragonblade »

Lou Jost wrote:
Sun Dec 20, 2020 9:48 am
I'm not sure if the shorter distance of travel has anything to do with Vorticella appearing to move faster than a cheetah when in actual fact, it is not faster.
Don't forget, you are looking at it under high magnification.
Oh yea that thought made more sense to me after I made my last post.
Lou Jost wrote:
Sun Dec 20, 2020 9:48 am
A Peregrine passing through your scope would appear to move at 2000-10000mph. That's faster than a bullet.
And logically, I wouldn't even be able to see the Peregrine falcon flying under my scope. It would be too fast for my eyes to notice. Unless it started in a stationary position and then took off in which case it would look like it suddenly vanished.
Last edited by dragonblade on Sun Dec 20, 2020 7:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

dragonblade
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Re: Vorticella - fastest moving organism?

Post by dragonblade »

iconoclastica wrote:
Sun Dec 20, 2020 2:09 pm
Lou, a Peregrine falcon flying under my microscope would probably give me quite a shock!
Which is nothing, compared to how that falcon would feel.
Fair point! I think a cheetah running under my scope would feel equally stressed / traumatised.

MarkSturtevant
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Re: Vorticella - fastest moving organism?

Post by MarkSturtevant »

As mentioned above, the strike of a mantis shrimp (and for that matter, there is the similarly deadly snapper claw of the pistol shrimp). Non of these rely on muscle, but (I think) more on elastic recoil of very resilient cuticle that stores tremendous energy. A figure I found for the 'smasher' club of a mantis shrimp is 23 meters / sec!
Mark Sturtevant
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Lou Jost
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Re: Vorticella - fastest moving organism?

Post by Lou Jost »

That's pretty amazing. But having to move through a dense medium like water is a big disadvantage for setting speed records. A peregrine in air travels 90m/s, and not just for an instant.

Of course, the terminal velocity of an elephant falling from a plane is probably even in excess of that....

Edit: Well, the internet is full of elephant terminal velocity calculations. Turns out that it is close to that of a peregrine, with estimates on either side of 90m/s!

Edit 2:https://www.airspacemag.com/flight-toda ... 68/?page=1
Looks like a skydiver with a trained falcon has measured the actual speed of the peregrine by diving with it. 240mph max!

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