Protists
By: Cayden McCarthy
Amoeba
How it Gets Food - The amoeba gets its food by eating algae, plant cells, and microscopic protozoa.
How it Reproduces - The amoeba reproduces asexually by completing a process called binary fission which is when the cell splits itself in half.
How It Responds - When the Amoeba has too much water, it is enclosed in a structure and squirted out through the cell.
Euglena
How it Gets Food - The Euglena has chloroplasts so it makes its own food by completing a process called photosynthesis. Another way a Euglena can obtain food is by absorbing nutrients through the cell wall.
How it Reproduces - The Euglena reproduces much like the Amoeba, as it divides itself into daughter cells. This is also called Mitosis.
How it Responds - When it does not have any light, it looks for things to eat like tiny organisms such as amoeba and paramecium.
Paramecium
How it Gets Food - The paramecium is an animal like cell so it feeds on other microorganisms.
How it Reproduces - Paramecium reproduce asexually two or three times a day. They can also reproduce sexually but asexually is the most common way.
How it Responds - When a paramecium is being attacked, it shoots out trichocysts to make them look bigger and scare the predator.
Volvox
How it Gets Food - The Volvox makes its own food by the process of photosynthesis.
How it Reproduces - When the daughter colonies mature, the parent ball bursts and let out the daughter colonies.
How it Responds - They live together in colonies of 500-50,000 cells. You can see them with your naked eye.