A three foot cell?
In one of my fictitious planets, there are large cells that reside in the ocean and are 3 feet (almost 1 metre) in diameter. The cells themselves are aggregates of many amoeboid cells, have only one cell membrane, but many nuclei.
My question is: is such a large size for a single celled organism possible? If not, what modifications might I need to make to make it more plausible?
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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...
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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.
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