Animalcule

Common card · No. 403142

Animalcule (Latin for 'little animal'; from animal and -culum) is an archaic term for microscopic organisms that included bacteria, protozoans, and very small animals. The word was invented by 17th-century Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek to refer to the microorganisms he observed in rainwater. Some better-known types of animalcule include: Actinophrys, and other heliozoa, termed sun animalcules. Amoeba, termed Proteus animalcules. Noctiluca scintillans, commonly termed the sea sparkles. Paramecium, termed slipper animalcules. Rotifers, termed wheel animalcules. Stentor, termed trumpet animalcules. Vorticella, and other peritrichs, termed bell animalcules. The concept seems to have been proposed at least as early as about 30 BC, as evidenced by this translation from Marcus Varro's Rerum Rusticarum Libri Tres: Note also if there be any swampy ground, both for the reasons given above, and because certain minute animals, invisible to the eye, breed there, and, borne by the air,...

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