
Let me tell you a little bit about myself, well, animal cells in general. Animal
cells, like myself, are eukaryotic heterotrophs. What? What
does that mean? Basically, it means that we're complex critters,
but can't rely only on ourselves. The term eukaryotic refers
to the fact that we have a nucleus, as opposed to our lesser developed
counterpart, Beatrice the Bacteria. The nucleus runs the metabolic
show in each cell, and furthermore, we have membrane-bound organelles
that help with complex processes such as digestion, cellular respiration
(the breakdown of glucose to fuel the cell), reproduction, and the
production of proteins. The heterotrophic part just means that
we don't make our own food, we're consumers. It's not our fault,
we were made that way. And oh, about that... don't let the endosymbiont
theory fool you. Though plant and animal cells developed from
those dumb prokaryotes millions of years ago, we're still a thousand
times better. We can do so much more cool stuff than they can,
they've got nothing on Patricia and me.
Don't tell her I told you this, but animal cells are better than plant
cells too. I mean, no other type of cell can bind together like
we do, with the help of collagen, to make such a large variety of tissues
that lead to an even greater plethora of organisms. We rock!!