The Complex World Inside a Jar of Water

This looks a little like the kind of experiment you do in 6th grade, but it never works because your mother threw it out or it started stinking and your mother made you throw it out. Nestor of HabitatForge does a lot of work with natural aquariums, so he is the kind of person who could keep a jar of water alive for a month. For this jar, he collected mud and water from a temporary rain puddle, the kind that's here today and gone tomorrow. You know, the kind your dog drinks from. 

That water was nevertheless full of life! After the mud settled, we get a closeup look at the variety of creatures that thrived in the tiny ecosystem, along with the algae that turned it green. He can't identify all the species confidently enough to tell us, yet I'm surprised at how many he knows. Lest you begin feeling sorry for all these living things taken from their natural habitat, they are still around while that puddle has completely dried up. Except for what your dog drank.