The Birth of Complex Cells
1. Write down 10 words that you are not very familiar with. Look up the definitions
for at least 5 of these terms and write these definitions below.
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
2. Briefly summarize what this article was about.
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
3. According to the article, when did the first living organisms appear on earth and
when do scientists think that eukaryotic cells branched off from prokaryotic cells?
4. Using some calculations, how much time were prokaryotes here on earth before
eukaryotes came into being?
5. What were the earliest organisms similar to?
6. How is a eukaryote different from a prokaryote?
7. How are eukaryotic cells and prokaryotic cells similar to each other?
8. What would have never existed had it not been for the emergence of eukaryotic
cells?
9. Why have scientists struggled to figure out how eukaryotes have evolved from
prokaryotes?
10. How much larger and by what measurement are eukaryotic cells than prokaryotic
cells?
11. Who was the scientist that revived the idea of that the mitochondria and plastids
(chloroplasts) were once bacteria that were engulfed by a larger cell?
12. What is the most convincing evidence that this is what really occurred?
13. What usually happens to cells that are ingested by larger cells such as white blood
cells?
14. Is it possible for a cell that is ingested to survive and tolerate living inside another
cell? If so, how possible is this?
15. What does the word “phagocyte” mean in Greek?
16. What two characteristics must the host cell have had in order to engulf another
cell?
17. Bacteria have a cell wall. What is the thought behind what happened in order for
a cell to be able to engulf another cell?