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Specimen
005
In this video, we recorded an Amoeba proteus, one of the larger amoeba species, gobbling up an unfortunate paramecium. At the beginning of the video, you can see a small paramecium on the left darting around. It then foolishly goes near the amoeba and gets stuck on its cytoplasm. The paramecium is soon completely swallowed up by the cytoplasm and a dark, round vacuole than forms around the paramecium in the lower left part of the amoeba's 'body'. The paramecium can still be seen wriggling around in the vacuole for a couple of minutes but is eventually broken down by enzymes and digested, with its 'bits' being circulated around the rest of the cytoplasm. This recording was made using our microscope's 4X objective lens and, due to the slowness of the amoeba's movement, at three times normal speed. |