  Recent investigations indicate that solar coronal jets result from eruptions
of small-scale chromospheric filaments, called minifilaments; that is, the jets
are produced by scaled-down versions of typical-sized filament eruptions. We
consider whether solar spicules might in turn be scaled-down versions of
coronal jets, being driven by eruptions of "microfilaments." Assuming a
microfilament's size is about a spicule's width ($\sim$300~km), the estimated
occurrence number plotted against the estimated size of erupting filaments,
minifilaments, and microfilaments approximately follows a power-law
distribution (based on counts of CMEs, coronal jets, and spicules), suggesting
that many or most spicules could result from microfilament eruptions. Observed
spicule-base Ca II brightenings plausibly result from such microfilament
eruptions. By analogy with coronal jets, microfilament eruptions might produce
spicules with many of their observed characteristics, including smooth rise
profiles, twisting motions, and EUV counterparts. The postulated microfilament
eruptions are presumably eruptions of twisted-core micro magnetic bipoles that
are $\sim$1$".0$ wide. These explosive bipoles might be built and destabilized
by merging and cancelation of magnetic-flux elements of $\sim$few$\times 100$~G
and of size <~$0".5$---$1".0$. If however spicules are relatively more numerous
than indicated by our extrapolated distribution, then only a fraction of
spicules might result from this proposed mechanism.
