While cleaning the leaves from a sheltered flowerbed, I observed a small patch of brightly colored, yellow/orange stuff apparently growing on some rotting wood. Taking a sample to my lab, I discover that the stuff is alive and coenocytic (is comprised of a single mass of cytoplasm undivided by membranes and contains many nuclei). The organism that I have found is most likely ___.
The organism that best fits this description is a plasmodial slime mold. They are a group of eukaryotic organisms that can either live singly or in colonies.
They are basically single celled organisms with several nuclei aggregating in a mass.
When several flagellated cells fuse together, they yield a single cytoplasm with several nuclei.
They feed on micro-organisms and are ubiquitous in nature.
