Chapter List

Chapter 1: Paramecium

Paramecium: Observations show how it moves, feeds, digests and assimilates nutrients, achieves water balance, deploys defensive weapons, reproduces and engages in the sexual exchange of genetic material. The narrated observations utilize state of the art microscopy, techniques to present a compelling new picture of Paramecium's life.

Chapter 2: Hydra

Hydra: Observations of Hydra show feeding behavior, detailed microscopy of stinging cells used in capturing prey, two digestive processes (cellular and extracellular), locomotion, reproduction by budding, development of sex organs, and symbiotic guests, both external and internal.

Chapter 3: Planarians

Planarians: The cross-eyed flatworm, Planarian, is both scavenger and predator depending upon opportunity. Observations show food-seeking behavior, the flatworm's feeding method, locomotion (produced by a carpet of cilia), internal anatomy and reproduction through the remarkable process of regeneration.

Chapter 4: Daphnia

Daphnia: Daphnia is a classic study in arthropod behavior and anatomy. In living subjects we examine: eye, brain, jaws, intestine, swimming legs with gills, its beating heart, and two kinds of eggs, those that hatch directly into female daphnia, and resistant eggs that carry the species through periods of freezing and drying.