Report on the Radiolaria Collected by H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873-1876, First Part: Porulosa (Spumellaria and Acantharia): Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873-76, Vol. XVIIIHaeckel, Ernst
Science
Report on the Radiolaria Collected by H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873-1876, First Part: Porulosa (Spumellaria and Acantharia): Report on the Scientific Results of the Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger During the Years 1873-76, Vol. XVIII
Haeckel, Ernst
Radiolaria
12. _Morphological Individuality._--From the morphological standpoint the
individuality of the unicellular elementary organism is obvious in the
ordinary solitary Radiolaria (Monobia), and is to be so regarded that the
whole body with all its constituent parts, and not merely the central
capsule, is to be regarded as _a cell_. Naturally the xanthellæ or yellow
cells (§§ 76, 90), which as independent algæ live in symbiosis with many
Radiolaria, must be excluded. The unicellular organisation of the
Radiolaria is further to be distinguished from that of the other Protista,
inasmuch as an internal membrane (capsule-membrane) separates the central
(medullary) from the peripheral (cortical) portion. In the coenobia of the
social Radiolaria (or Polycyttaria), the morphological individuality
persists only as regards the medullary portions of the aggregated cells
(the individual central capsules), while the cortical portions fuse
completely to form a common extracapsulum. Hence in these SPUMELLARIA
polyzoa two different stages of morphological individuality must be
distinguished, the _Cell_ as a _Morphon of the first stage_, and the
_Coenobium_ as a _Morphon of the second stage_.
13. _Physiological Individuality._--From the physiological standpoint also
the individuality of the unicellular organism is immediately obvious in the
case of the ordinary solitary Radiolaria (Monobia); as in other Protista it
fulfils all the functions of life by itself alone. This physiological
individuality of the monobious Radiolarian cell is furthermore not
influenced by the xanthellæ, which live as independent algæ in symbiosis
with many Radiolaria; even though these often by the production of starch
assist in the {vii}nourishment of the Radiolaria, yet they are by no means
indispensable to them. On the other hand, the physiological individuality
offers more complicated relations in the social Radiolaria (Polycyttaria)
which live united in colonies or coenobia. Here the actual _Bion_ (or the
fully developed physiological individual) is not represented by the
individual cells, but by the whole multicellular coenobium, which in each
species has a definite form and size. In these coenobia, which are usually
spherical or cylindrical jelly-like masses, several millimeters in
diameter, numerous cells are so intimately united that only their medullary
portions (the central capsule with the endoplasm) remain independent; the
cortical portions (calymma and exoplasm) on the contrary uniting into a
common extracapsulum. This discharges, as a whole, the functions of
locomotion, sensation, and inception of nutriment, while the separate
central capsules act in the main only as reproductive organs (forming
spores) and partly also as the central organs of metastasis (digestion).
Each coenobium may also be regarded as a polycyttarium, _i.e._, a
"multicellular Radiolarian," whose numerous central capsules represent so
many sporangia or spore-capsules.
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