The ciliates are single-celled organisms with various numbers and arrangements of cilia. These cilia are tiny hair-like projections (comes from the Greek cilli, which means "eyelash") that are used as a means of locomotion or as a way to move food into an oral cavity and a mouth. In some organisms, cilia are fused together to form thicker and more rigid structures, called cirri (Greek for "tuft of hair"). Some organisms have cilia arranged in rows, where they act like wavy sheets. When cilia cover the entire organism, they tend to be arranged in diagonal rows. As a result, you can see these organisms spin as they move. Those organisms with cirri (see Oxytricha and Oligotrichs) tend to have them located on the underneath or bottom portion, where they act like legs to move along surfaces.
Ciliates may live as individual, free-moving organisms, as stalked and stationary organisms, or as colonial groups of organisms. Vorticella is both a stalked and colonial organism. Some ciliates are visible with the naked eye, such as spirostomum and larger species of paramecium.
Most ciliates feed on bacteria and organic material, such as dead vegetation. However, some may be carnivores feeding on other protists. A few species are parasitic.
Most ciliates reproduce by a process of simple fission or the splitting of cells. Others, such as paramecium, use a form of sexual reproduction, called conjugation. In such cases, two paramecium move along side one another and exchange genetic material.
Ciliates on this Site
Paramecium caudatum | ![]() |
Paramecium - bursaria group | ![]() |
Spirostomum | ![]() |
Oxytricha | ![]() |
Vorticella | ![]() |
Condylostoma | ![]() |
Coleps hirtus | ![]() |
Oligotrich | ![]() |
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©2010 Jeffrey W. Bloom