CHAPTER XII 

 Fresh-water Rhizopods 



THE Rhizopods 1 (root-footed creatures) are 

 among the simplest and lowest forms of 

 animal life. They are mostly minute, rarely visible 

 to the naked eye, and always require the high power 

 of the microscope to bring out the beauty of their 

 structure. The greater number of them construct 

 shells of rare outlines and of great variety. Their 

 soft parts consist of a jelly-like substance, which is 

 capable of being extended in thread-like processes, 

 to be used as meshes of prehension or as organs of 

 locomotion. The minuteness of these creatures is 

 compensated for in their numerical strength and their 

 world-wide distribution. They are all aquatic, occur- 

 ring wherever there is moisture. 



Every dyke, pool, pond, sea, and ocean abounds 

 with rhizopods, and it is doubtful if in the economy 

 of Nature any other class of animals exceeds them in 

 importance. 



Geologists tell us that rhizopods were the starting- 



1 Gr. rhisa, a root ; pous, foot. 



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