A three foot cell?

Maybe.

Giant cells actually exist. They occur when many cells fuse together, often to fight an infection. They typically reach a maximum size of 120 micrometers - nowhere near your size - but I suggest that it might be possible in an extreme case.

Potential reasons for the formation of a giant cell of bacteria:

• A disease that threatens all bacteria that live on their own.
• Cells fuse together in part of an embryo in response to something, and when the embryo is born, part of it is fused together.

These are pretty far-fetched, but I wouldn't write them off entirely as impossible.

posted about 8 years ago

HDE 226868‭

586 reputation 61 463 77 49

Egg yolks are single cells, and ostrich eggs are pretty big.

There was a news story about giant fossilized dinosaur eggs found in Chechnya a few years back which where up to 3 feet wide. There is some doubt whether they were really eggs (especially since the largest verified dino egg is football sized*), and no one is guessing what laid them if they are actually eggs, but it is interesting.

So giant cells aren't unheard of here on earth. I don't see any reason why one couldn't develop in an alien sea if conditions were right.

^{* I don't know if they are talking about American gridiron football or European soccer football, but since it was found in France...}

posted about 8 years ago

AndyD273‭

1 reputation 8 213 1 0