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PARAMECIUM

PARAMECIUM. Paramecium is a small unicellular organism. It is plentiful in freshwater ponds. . pellicle. contractile vacuole. macronucleus. cytoplasm: ectoplasm endoplasm. micronucleus. cilia. oral groove. anal pore. gullet. food vacuole. Paramecium Movement.

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PARAMECIUM

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  1. PARAMECIUM • Paramecium is a small unicellular organism. • It is plentiful in freshwater ponds.

  2. pellicle contractile vacuole macronucleus cytoplasm: ectoplasm endoplasm micronucleus cilia oral groove anal pore gullet food vacuole

  3. Paramecium Movement • The outer surface of the cell is covered with many hundreds of tiny hair-like structures called cilia. • These act like microscopic oars to push through the water, enabling the organism to swim. • If Paramecium comes across an obstacle, it stops, reverses the beating of the cilia, swims backwards, turns through an angle and moves forward again on a slightly different course. • It moves so quickly that we have to add a thickening agent or quieting solution to the slide to slow it down to study it.

  4. Paramecium Feeding • Paramecium has a permanent feeding mechanism, consisting of an oral groove and a funnel-shaped gullet into which food is drawn by the combined action of cilia which cover the body and other cilia lining the oral groove and the gullet. • As it moves through the water it rotates on its axis and small particles of debris and food are collected and swept into the gullet. • They feed on small organisms such as bacteria, yeasts, algae and even other smaller protozoa.

  5. Paramecium Reproduction • In favourable conditions the cell divides in two by a process called binary fission (asexual reproduction). • This forms two new cells, each of which rapidly grows any new structures required and increases in size. • This whole process may take place two or three times a day if conditions were right.

  6. Paramecium Reproduction • This is a more complicated method called conjugation (sexual reproduction). • It involves two cells coming together to exchange nuclear material. • The two cells then separate and continue to reproduce by simple division. • It is similar in some ways to sexual reproduction in more complex animals.

  7. Paramecium Excretion • Food waste left in a food vacuole is excreted through the anal pore (the vacuole and pore fuse. • Other wastes left over from cellular activity (metabolic waste) simply diffuse through the pellicle. • Excess water and some metabolic wastes are excreted through the contractile vacuole.

  8. “One scientist calculated that if all the progeny of a single Paramecium survived, assuming a division rate of once a day, then after 113 days, the mass of paramecia would equal the volume of the Earth!“

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