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kgould's picture

Kate and Catrina

Submitted by kgould on Wed, 09/26/2007 - 2:36pm.

Our hypothesis: larger organisms are composed of larger cells, smaller organisms composed of smaller cells.

Our observations:

  • coleus: cells average 40 microns
  • buttercup root tip: cells average 50 microns
  • pine stem: cells average 20 microns
  • pig: cells average 5.2 microns (large size difference between cells)
  • protist (mixed flagellates): cells average 60 microns (there is a large size difference between each flagellate)
  • spirogyra vegatative: average 60 microns
  • protist (ceratium): average 100 microns

Our conclusion: the size of an organism does not itself determine the size of its cells. Larger organisms do not have larger cells than smaller organisms. On the contrary, the single-celled protists had the largest cells at 100 microns (ceratium), and the portion of pig intestine had the smallest cells at 5.2 microns. The pig is much larger than the protist. Perhaps it is not the size of the cells that matters, but the quanitity of cells when it comes to the size of the whole organism.

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