MadSci Network: General Biology |
Samantha,
So this seems like a pretty straightforward question, and for paramecia it is. Paramecia eat almost anything organic - other protists, small single celled fungi, bacteria, and organic materials floating in their surrounding environment.
Euglenas are a little different. Like paramecia they can eat a variety of living things around them. They do not have anything like a mouth, which paramecia do, so they eat things by engulfing them in a process called “endocytosis.” Euglenas have a trick up their sleeves though – they have chloroplasts, much like plants, and are therefore able to absorb light and create sugar from it in a process called photosynthesis. This means that they are not just heterotrophs (deriving theirenergy from eating other living things) or autotrophs (deriving their energy from sunlight) – they are a weird mix of the two.
I hope this bit of information helps you! Not a lot of protozoologists out there so keep thinking about Euglenas and Paramecia!
Billy.
A description of paramecia, including what they eat.
http://www .fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/paramecium.htm
A sweet video of paramecia eating yeast stained with Congo Red.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9ymaSzcsdY
Tree of Life page for Euglenas – Tree of Life is great for this kind of research, by the way. Pay particular attention to the section, “Evolutionary History of the Euglenid Pellicle.”
http://tolweb.org/Euglenida/97461
Try the links in the MadSci Library for more information on General Biology.