Definición y significado de animalcule

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

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:

• Actinophryies, and other heliozoa, called sun animalcules
• Amoeba, called Proteus animalcule
• Noctiluca scintillans, commonly called the 'Sea Sparkles'
• Paramecium, called slipper animalcules
• Rotifers, called wheel animalcules
• Stentor, called trumpet animalcules
• Vorticella, and other peritrichs, called bell animalcules

The term was also used by Anton van Leeuwenhoek, the 17th-century preformationist and discoverer of microorganisms, to describe spermatozoa.

The word appears in the Major-General's Song, in which Major-General Stanley sings, "I know the scientific names of beings animalculous..."

  See also

• Caminalcule