SciShow Tangents

Symbiosis

May 24, 2022
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INSIGHT

Symbiosis Is A Broad Biological Category

  • Symbiosis is an umbrella term for any close biological relationship between species.
  • Mutualism, commensalism, and parasitism are different outcomes under that umbrella.
INSIGHT

Obligate Versus Facultative Partnerships

  • Some symbioses are obligate and create organisms that function like single entities, while others are facultative and optional.
  • That distinction makes the term 'symbiosis' fuzzy at ecological edges.
ANECDOTE

Algae Live Inside Salamander Embryos

  • The green alga Oophila colonizes spotted salamander eggs and can live inside embryos and later in tissues.
  • This is the only known natural example of algae living inside a vertebrate.
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