Physical Characteristics
A few characteristics distinguish Polychaos dubium from other species of Polychaos. The crystals floating in its cytoplasm take the shape of flat bipyramids, flat plates, or clustered platelets. The nucleus is ellipsoid in shape, has granules next to the membrane, and lacks an endosome. The cell is usually polypodal (has many pseudopodia), and the endoplasm and ectoplasm of the cytoplasm are clear. During rapid locomotion, P. dubium may become monopodial (present only one pseudopod), but there are an average of 12 pseudopodia.
Polychaos dubium may have the largest genome known for any organism, consisting of 670 billion base pairs of DNA, which is over 200 times larger than the human genome. The authors of one study, however, suggest treating that measurement with caution, because it was taken before the advent of modern genomic methods.
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