Two one-celled eaters
Amoeba and Paramoecium take in food differently.
One cell, one meal
Amoeba and Paramoecium are each a single cell. Each one must catch and eat its food.
Do you think both of them catch food in the same way?
What this lesson covers
The idea
Amoeba engulfs food with temporary finger-like extensions that fuse into a food-vacuole, where it is broken down and diffuses into the cytoplasm; Paramoecium, having a definite shape, takes in food at a specific spot, moved there by cilia.
One cell, one meal
Amoeba and Paramoecium are each a single cell. Each one must catch and eat its food.
Do you think both of them catch food in the same way?
- No, in different ways
- Yes, exactly the same way
- Neither one eats
Watch them feed
Press Next step to follow Amoeba, then Paramoecium.
Two ways in
Amoeba has no fixed shape. It puts out temporary finger-like extensions that fuse over a food particle and make a food-vacuole; the food is broken down inside and the simpler substances diffuse into the cytoplasm. Paramoecium has a definite shape and takes in food at a specific spot, to which the cilia move it.
Amoeba engulfs food with temporary finger-like extensions that fuse into a food-vacuole, where it is broken down and diffuses into the cytoplasm; Paramoecium, having a definite shape, takes in food at a specific spot, moved there by cilia.
Notes
Amoeba: temporary finger-like extensions fuse into a food-vacuole. Paramoecium: definite shape, food taken in at a specific spot, moved there by cilia.
Check yourself
How does Amoeba take in food?
Where is the food broken down in Amoeba?
What moves food to the spot where Paramoecium takes it in?
Which one-celled organism is described in the book as having a definite shape?
- Cilia move the food to a specific spot. This describes Paramoecium, whose cilia move food to a specific spot.
- Finger-like extensions fuse over the food particle — correct. Yes!
- The food is taken in only at one fixed spot of the cell. Amoeba uses temporary extensions of its surface. Taking in food at a specific spot is how Paramoecium does it.
- Outside the cell. In Amoeba the food particle is enclosed in a food-vacuole and broken down inside the cell.
- On the cilia. Cilia are part of Paramoecium, where they move food to the spot where it is taken in.
- Inside the food-vacuole — correct. Yes!
- The cilia on its surface — correct. Yes!
- Temporary finger-like extensions. Temporary finger-like extensions are how Amoeba takes in food.
- A food-vacuole. A food-vacuole forms in Amoeba when extensions fuse over the food; it does not move food to a spot.
- Amoeba. Amoeba takes in food with temporary extensions of its surface; the book describes the cell of Paramoecium as having a definite shape.
- Paramoecium — correct. Yes!
- A food-vacuole. A food-vacuole is a space that forms around a food particle in Amoeba; it is not an organism.