Elementary Zoology, Second EditionKellogg, Vernon L. (Vernon Lyman)
Science
Elementary Zoology, Second Edition
Kellogg, Vernon L. (Vernon Lyman)
Animals; Zoology
"Conjugation occurs sometimes, but it is unlike the conjugation of
_Paramœcium_ in two important points: Firstly, the conjugation is
between two dissimilar forms; an ordinary large-stalked form, and a much
smaller free-swimming form which has originated by repeated division of
a large form. Secondly, the union of the two is a complete and permanent
fusion, the smaller being absorbed into the larger. This permanent
fusion of a small active cell with a relatively large fixed cell,
followed by division of the fused mass, presents a striking analogy to
the process of sexual reproduction occurring in higher animals."
OTHER PROTOZOA
Besides the _Amœba_, _Paramœcium_, and _Vorticella_ there are
thousands of other Protozoa. Most of them live in water, but a few
live in damp sand or moss, and some live inside the bodies of other
animals as parasites. Of those which live in water some are marine,
while others are found only in fresh-water streams and lakes.
[Illustration: FIG. 9.--Sun animalcule, a fresh-water protozoan with a
siliceous skeleton, and long thread-like protoplasmic prolongations.
(From life.)]
=Form of body.=--The Protozoa all agree in having the body composed
for its whole lifetime of a single cell,[7] but they differ much in
shape and appearance. Some of them are of the general shape and
character of _Amœba_, sending out and retracting blunt, finger-like
pseudopodia, the body-mass itself having no fixed form or outline but
constantly changing. Others have the body of definite form, spherical,
elliptical, or flattened, enclosed by a thin cuticle, and having a
definite number of fine thread-like or hair-like protoplasmic
prolongations called flagella or cilia. Many of the familiar Protozoa
of the fresh-water ponds always have two whiplash-like flagella
projecting from one end of the body. By means of the lashing of these
flagella in the water the tiny creature swims about. Others have many
hundreds of fine short cilia scattered, sometimes in regular rows,
over the body-surface. The Protozoan swims by the vibration of these
cilia in the water.
[Illustration: FIG. 10.--_Stentor_ sp.; a protozoan which may be
fixed, like _Vorticella_, or free-swimming, at will, and which has the
nucleus in the shape of a string or chain of bead-like bodies. The
figure shows a single individual as it appeared when fixed, with
elongate, stalked body, and as it appeared when swimming about with
contracted body. (From life.)]
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