Fig. 1: Ciliates utilise phagotrophy to ingest food particles.
From: Flow physics of nutrient transport drives functional design of ciliates
A An illustration of swimming (purple) and sessile (blue) ciliates in a drop of water, showing that ciliates can be over 1000 times bigger than bacterial cells. Magnified illustration of (B). Swimming Paramecium and (C). Attached Stentor, where cilia beat in concert to direct food particles and prey to the cell feeding apparatus. Cilia densely cover the Paramecium cell surface, while the Stentor generates feeding currents using ciliary bands that are localised around the feeding apparatus.
