Amoeba+-+BP

= **Introduction** =

An amoeba is a single celled organism that needs to stay alive. And it will in any way possible. Amoebas have special parts just like humans to help them stay alive. They also have their very own way to eat, move, and reproduce. But the craziest thing about an amoeba is that being only 0.2 millimeters large it has the power to kill. Zombies eating your brain in the zombie apocalypse is something out of a movie. But amoebas can eat your brain too, and they’re real.

toc = **Special parts of an amoeba** = An amoeba is a single celled organism that has one main purpose in life. To live. Special parts on the amoeba help it do that. One special part is the **__ pseudopodia __** meaning false feet and these things help the amoeba move. Another special part on the amoeba is the **__ Food Vacuoles __** these special vacuoles store and digest the amoebas food. According to enchantedlearning.com their diets include " algae, bacteria, plant cells, and microscopic protozoa and metazoa". The last special part on the amoeba is the **__ Contractile vacuole __** this is a water bubble inside the cells **__ cytoplasm __** (the material that fills up a cell). This helps control water flow and to make sure the cell always has an equal water supply. Think of these cells like the human thumb. Not a lot of living things have these parts and without them, life would be a lot harder.



This is an amoeba. All its special parts are labeled here.

= = = **Brain Eating amoebas** =

I know that probably sounds like something out of a horror movie but it really does happen. But don’t worry, the disease is very rare. You get this disease by swimming in pond water and the amoebas enter through your nose. After they get inside your head they go to your brain and begin to feast. After a while you may experience some symptoms. Symptoms include nausea and vomiting, headache and fever. Later symptoms include stiff neck, confusion, lack of attention to people and surroundings, seizures, and hallucinations. The scientific name for this disease is **__primary amebic meningoencephalitis__**(PAM). After reading this you probably will never go swimming in a pond ever again but the chance of you getting this disease is very low so don’t let it change the way you live.

=** How Do Amoebas Eat, Move, and Reproduce **= Amoebas move by using their special pseudopod. It stretchers out in the direction the amoeba wants to go then pulls back into the amoebas body and pulls it along. By doing this the amoeba changes its shape. The pseudopod also helps the amoeba eat. It wraps itself around the food and pulls the food into its body and into the food vacuole. The food vacuole then digests the food and distributes nutrients throughout the amoeba. The way amoebas reproduce is actually quite cool. They clone their DNA and then split themselves in half! This process is called **__ binary fission __****.** =media type="youtube" key="7pR7TNzJ_pA" width="269" height="196" media type="youtube" key="fUxPL8cySwY" width="251" height="195"=

This video shows how an amoeba moves. This video shows how an amoeba reproduces through binary fission. = = = media type="youtube" key="Nn1aSz36Ra0" width="236" height="182" = This video shows the amoeba eating and using its contractile vacuole = = = = = **Conclusion** = So as you can see amoebas may be small but definitely aren't boring. They have specific parts that help them stay alive and the have their own way of moving, eating and reproducing. Amoebas also have the power to kill. With all this in mind you can clearly see that amoebas are important. = **References** =

Works Cited

Binary Fission in Amoeba. Youtube. N.p., 30 Apr. 2010. Web. 7 Mar. 2016. . “Brain-Eating Amoeba.” WebMD. WebMD, 2005. Web. 4 Mar. 2016. . Types of Cells: Amoeba and Animal Cell Discovery Education, 2004. Video Segment Discovery Education. Web. 18/2/2016. . Wagner, Ralph, Dr. Amoeba in Motion. youtube. N.p., 30 Apr. 2008. Web. 25 Feb. 2016. . Wild, Eyes Wide. Amoebae. youtube. N.p., 8 Jan. 2010. Web. 26 Feb. 2016. .