Animalcule
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Animalcule ("little animal", from Latin animal + the diminutive suffix -culum) is an older term for a microscopic animal or protozoan. Some better-known animalcules include:
- Rotifers, called wheel animalcules
- Paramecium, called slipper animalcules
- Stentor, called trumpet animalcules
- Vorticella, and other peritrichs, called bell animalcules
- Actinophrys, and other heliozoa, called sun animalcules
- Amoeba, called proteus animalcules
The term was used by Anton van Leeuwenhoek, the 17th-century preformationist and discoverer of microorganisms, to describe spermatozoa and the homunculi he believed they contained.
