Animal Cells and
“Guinea Pigs”
Right at the beginning of the manual, we said that all living things
are composed of cells, and that there are smaller cells and larger
ones. The question remains whether large living things have bigger
cells than little ones. Or is it just that their bodies are composed of
more cells? If you can find an adult willing to serve as a “guinea pig,”
you will be able to answer these questions easily enough. Let’s
assume you are about 4 feet (1.3 meters) tall and your adult “guinea
pig” is 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall. In that case, the guinea pig’s cells
would have to be at least about one and a half times the size of
yours — assuming a larger body means larger cells!
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