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Letter: Seafloor giant

Published 21 November 1998

From Graeme Murray

In Newswire you report a claim to have found the largest single-celled organism in the world
(This Week, 24 October, p 23).

To my knowledge, this title is held by the genus Caulerpa, with
individual cells of this alga spreading across up to a metre of seafloor. It is
multinuclear though, and perhaps distinctions are to be made on the basis of the
number of nuclei a cell needs to get by.

murray@newton.dialix.com.au

Issue no. 2161 published 21 November 1998

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