• Question: what is the biggist cell

    Asked by to Clare, Divya, Ian, Jess, Lewis on 19 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Jess Smith

      Jess Smith answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      It depends what you mean by biggest really! Generally it’s thought to be the ovum (or “egg cell”, which is the female sex cell, where all the sperms are trying to get to) because it has a large diameter (~1mm), but the longest cells are motor neurons. These are nerve cells, and can be up to 1m long!! They are very skinny though, so don’t have a big volume.

    • Photo: Ian Hands-Portman

      Ian Hands-Portman answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      The giant squid has a nerve cell around 12m long – a lot bigger than an egg. There’s a deep sea amoeba called Gromia sphaerica that gets up to 38mm – that’s as big as a grape!

    • Photo: Lewis Dean

      Lewis Dean answered on 19 Mar 2014:

      I always thought that it was an ovum (egg), but it seems that big nerve cells may be bigger. I will let Jess and Ian battle it out on this one!

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