The largest 2

Biology Level 2

Which is the largest cell in the world?

caulerpa Taxifolia Nerve Cell Teuthida Struthio camelus

1 solution

Ashish Menon
Apr 23, 2016

Great question Abhay. Some say that the largest cell in the world is an ostrich's egg. Some say it is Caulerpa taxifolia, found in an algae. so, choose the option mentioned.

Ashish, it was maybe a decade ago, when we were not known of the fact that there exists an algae named caulerpa taxifolia, and the books are still printing ostrich egg, that is why the confusion prevails. And ostrich egg is also in the option :), I have given its scientific name(Struthio camelus)

Abhay Tiwari - 5 years, 1 month ago

oh my gosh, i agree that according to recent researches the answer is caulerpa taxifolia, but my viewpoint is that the answer should be an ostrich's egg, because how can we effectively determine the average size of an organ found in an algae which can be of varying size. XD

Ashish Menon - 5 years, 1 month ago

Ashish, caulerpa, does not have any organ, it's fully a single celled organism and grows up to 12 inches in diameter which is larger than an ostrich's egg. Moreover even an ostrich egg might be heavier than the caulerpa, while talking about largest we determine it by volume occupied and in this case Caulerpa has the upper hand.

Abhay Tiwari - 5 years, 1 month ago

@Abhay Tiwari – Yes correct, forgot that, maybe the values are according to observations of many years. thanks!:+1:

Ashish Menon - 5 years, 1 month ago

I found two issues with the question. The first is that it is not clear whether the biggest by volume of the biggest by maximum length is asked. The second is that the definition of cell is unclear about multinucleated ones as Caulerpa Taxifolia. If you consider them valid answers then molds seems to me the biggest cells.

Dario Sterzi - 5 years, 1 month ago

The largest 2

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