Amoeba

Amoeba is a tiny single-celled living organism (a protozoan) that can change its shape and move on its own.

• Where it lives: Commonly found in pond water, wet soil, and other watery places.
• Why its shape looks irregular: An amoeba has no fixed body shape because its cell membrane is flexible, so it keeps forming new bulges.
• How it moves: It moves using pseudopodia (“false feet”)—temporary finger-like extensions of its body that push and pull it forward.
• How it eats: It surrounds tiny food particles (like bacteria) with pseudopodia and forms a food vacuole inside, where the food gets digested.
• A simple way to imagine it: Think of a soft blob of jelly that slowly spreads out in one direction, then pulls the rest of its body along.

Even though it is just one cell, an amoeba can do all life processes—moving, eating, breathing, and getting rid of waste—within that single cell.