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Believe it or not, that's not even close to the largest unicellular organism. One of the largest is Valonia ventricosa, a species of algae that has spherical or
by actually_a_dog 5y ago
Believe it or not, that's not even close to the largest unicellular organism. One of the largest is Valonia ventricosa, a species of algae that has spherical or ovoid cells "with a diameter that ranges typically from 1 to 4 centimetres (0.4 to 1.6 in) although it may achieve a diameter of up to 5.1 centimetres (2.0 in) in rarer cases." [0]
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[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valonia_ventricosa#Physiology_and_reproduction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valonia_ventricosa#Physiology_...
- bayesian_horse 5y agoPoint being those algae are eukaryotic. The article is about an unusually large bacterium (prokaryotic) which has some eukaryotic features.
- undersuit 5y agoMy favorite large unicellular organisms are Xenophyophorea. They have multiple nuclei probably because the diffusion of transcription processes over an 8 inch diameter cell would be just too slow with a single central nucleus. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophyophorea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophyophorea