Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell

What’s It Like to Be Killed by Nature’s Most Brutal Predator

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Cyanobacteria grow stiff end sheaths, then detach those ends when attacked and leave predators hungry.
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Coleps fires about a dozen poison-filled syringes, injecting prey with a cocktail of 19 chemicals.
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Polykrikos fires a two-stage weapon: a dart slimes its prey, then a coiled harpoon pierces and anchors it.
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Cyanobacteria vomit out transparent, durable slime that seals their community inside a glass-like defensive fortress.
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Polykrikos kofoidii is one cell formed by four semi-independent beings functioning together as something larger.
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Coleps chemicals dissolve cell membranes, making cells burst and opening severe wounds for tissue consumption.
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Without teeth, Pseudomicrothorax ejects hundreds of vesicles packed with digestive chemicals that dissolve prey internally.
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Alexandrium launches crystalline trichocysts, hard defensive spikes, but they cannot free it from Polykrikos’ anchored weapon.
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Polykrikos kofoidii survives famine as a spore, awakening when toxic algal prey becomes abundant.
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Alexandrium produces saxitoxin, an extreme neurotoxin that drives fish away and makes shellfish dangerous to eat.
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Cyanobacteria repair fortress breaches with fresh slime and push attackers out, but the predators return.
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Cyanobacteria rank among Earth’s oldest organisms, producing oxygen that supports life around the planet.
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Inside Polykrikos, Alexandrium is digested externally as acids dissolve the prey alive.

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