Animal verse Plant Cells

   All organisms are composed of cells, from the wings on a butterfly to the apple or oranges a person may eat. There are distinct differences between animal and plant cells, that make a plant a plant and an animal an animal, but there are similarities as well. All cells exhibit four basic structural similarities, a nucleoid or nucleus where genetic material is located, cytoplasm, ribosomes, and a plasma membrane. These four pieces of a cell play a pivotal role in a cells structure.
   But what makes a animal cell different from a plant cell? Animal cells have no cell wall, whereas plant cells do have a cell wall. The cell wall surrounds the contents inside the cell. Animal cells instead have a plasma membrane to contain what is inside. The plasma membrane gives the animal cell a round irregular shape, and the shape of plant cells is rectangular because of the presents of a cell wall. Both cells have vacuoles but plant cells vacuoles make up about 90 percent of the plant cells volume, animal cells have vacuoles but they are much smaller and may have more then one. A big difference between the two cells is chloroplast, plant cells have chloroplast to allow photosynthesis to take place producing its own food. Animal cells do not have chloroplast because it is fed by what is digested by the animal. These are only a few differences, animal cells also have centrioles, lysosome, and has a flagellum even though not all animal cells have them.


Above is a diagram of a plant cell, and it shows the cell wall, chlooroplast, and how big the central vacuole is. The shape is also highlighted in the diagram as well, because of the cell wall the shape of the plant cell is ridged and does not change. Below is a diagram of a animal cell and the shape is more irregular and squishy. The animal cell diagram shows the lysosomes, and the centrioles. Both cells are different but if closely looked the similarities are also great. It would be very interesting to see if one thing is changed on a animal cell if it would change the animal all together.

http://www.diffen.com/difference/Image:Animal-Cell.png

http://www.biology-online.org/11/1_plant_cells_vs_animal_cells.htm