 Even if philosophers concede that microbes might be good models for some very basic biological processes (e.g., genetic pathways), they might still believe that many phenomena of relevance to humans and other animals are too far from any microbial analogue. Because of initially being defined by animal characteristics, phenomena such as predation, ageing, and kin recognition have often been thought to be outside the purview of microbes. However, it turns out that microbes are, in fact, productive objects of study for many of these phenomena.