Rita's Cell: Protozoan or Protista?

Rita’s Cell:  Protozoan or Protista?

I was Zoology major at Eastern Illinois University so when Sara posted the July challenge word I thought she had been sensing my quilting karma. The Cell design popped out from under the microscope (that has a place of importance in our home) fully formed and demanding to be executed!  

 In 1958, my first Zoology text book was General Zoology by Tracy L. Storer, copyright, 1951. In those days at Eastern, text books were rented and not purchased, but you had the option of purchasing the book if you wished and it is sitting at my elbow as I work on this writing.  It was the ‘Bible’ of all things Zoology.

In my college years, the three organisms illustrated in my quilt were classified as Protozoa or one celled animals.  They all moved in some manner and therefore were classified as animals, not plants.  However, it was troubling that the Euglena contained chlorophyll, the same material that makes green plants green.  But classification is a continually evolving discipline as new discoveries are made.  Today, these little organisms are classified as Protists or microscopic, single celled organisms, neither plant nor animal.

The largest cell (bottom) is a Paramecium (Kingdom: Protista; Phylum: Ciliophora) and all members of this group have cilia, or short hairs which help them move.

The top left cell is a Euglena (Kingdom: Protista; Phylum: Euglenopyta) and this organism uses a long whip-like flagella to enable it to move.

The top right cell is an Amoeba (Kingdom: Protista; Phylum: Rhizopoda).  These organisms move by using extensions from their body called pseudopodia (false feet).  The pseudopodia bulge out, anchor to another surface and the inner material of the organism then flows into the extension.

The microscope image is from a photograph of an old microscope that has been printed onto fabric.  This microscope belonged to a close friend, Dr. Robert (Bobbie) Crosthwait (1934-2005), the first cardiac surgeon in Waco to do open heart surgery.  

The images of the three organisms were taken from my old Zoology book, traced onto fabric and hand embroidered.  A small bit of color was added to the organisms using colored pencils. The embroidery was then cut into a circle to represent the view from the eyepiece of the microscope and fused into the green background fabric.  The image of the microscope had fusible web applied to the back and was carefully cut from the fabric and fused onto the background.

Fun facts for The Cell added by Randy:
Can a camel go through the eye of a needle? Nope! But how many of Rita’s Cell critters can make it? The eye of a #7 betweens sewing needle is 0.35 mm (millimeters) wide (approximately). For you purest, that measurement is at a right angle to the shaft, not parallel to the shaft.

The Euglena measures approximately 50 microns in length and 14 microns in width.  It takes 1,000 microns to equal one millimeter – written as 1/1000 or 1:1000.

Finally the fun facts:
If you line up 14 Euglena – side by side – like a rank in a marching band – they could all swim through the eye of that needle at the same time.

The Paramecium comes in a variety of lengths but they are usually about .50 mm wide. This means not even ONE can swim through the eye of our needle. But that’s OK because, as Rita said, those little hair-like cilia are actually all over their outer body like tiny oars and that’s how they swim, so you don’t want them stuck in a needle eye anyway.

The Amoeba is a different story. If they have just a tiny slot in that eye, they would just make their false foot fit the space and flow right on through.

See – aren’t you smiling now?