STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION IN PROTISTS

Amoeba proteus: formation of pseudopods

Cilia: hair-like structures which aid movement and help to produce water currents which bring food to the organism

Cilia aid in movement

Stentor uses cilia around the oral groove to pull food into the food vacuole

The oral groove of the Paramecium

Phagocytosis in the Amoeba

Probing for food

Euglena is especially interesting since it is green and photosynthetic and has flagella

The contractile vacuole is a structure which helps the organism remove excess water from its body

Some have a proboscis, like an elephants trunk, which helps in capturing prey.

Some protists have shells; this one is extending pseudopods from its shell (test)

Vorticella has a stalk which can contract to move it rapidly away from a disturbance.

Bursaria are easy to identify because of their unusual shape

Didinium has a horse-shoe shaped nucleus; also note the cilia and other organelles.

Reproduction

Some protists form colonies like these algae

Single celled or multi-celled? The volvox is a colonial organism. Here we see daughter cells before they burst out of the mother to become independent colonies of their own.

diatoms

Trypanasoma: note the blood cells

Spirogyra

The Hay Infusion