More than slime

We were looking for pretty animals that have eyes, are coloured, or glow in the dark; instead, the most interesting find was the organism that was blind, brainless, and completely covered in mud.

-- says Mikhail "Misha" Matz, who thinks the giant protists' bubble-like structure is probably one of the planet's oldest body designs, and may have existed for 1.8 billion years. (BBC report here. Richard Dawkins posts a Discovery report here )

These beings, which have 'a number of openings all over the body act as mouths and outlets for waste', are about 3cm across. Their cousins [?] the Xenophyophores, can be 20cm across.

P.S. 2 Dec: NYT