Donnie Phillip Culvert, age 12, of Nashville, for his question:

What are the largest and smallest animals?

The largest of all animals is the blue baleen whale. He maybe 100 foot long, as large as three fair‑sized houses and as heavy as the total population of a fair‑sized village. The smallest of all animals must be seen through a microscope which magnifies 1,000 times. This mite is a one‑celled animal. 25,000 of his relatives, linen up in a row, measure about one inch.

Letts imagine that all the people of Tennessee, Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio shrank to the size of the smallest animals on earth. There would be about 30 million of them. Now lot's ask them to join hands and stand in a long row. They would equal the length of one blue baleen whale.

A one‑celled animal is just what his name suggests: His body is a single living cell. The body of the big whale is composed of countless living cells. They are, however, specialized calls. His bc~nes are composed of ono type of cell, his skin another and his blood. another. Each type of cell has its own work to do. The one‑celled animal's single cell is a jack‑of‑all‑trades. It must do everything necessary to keep the tiny mite olive and healthy.

Let's cull our ono‑celled mite an amoeba. There is an endless variety of one‑celled animals in the world and the amoeba is an average member of the vast clan. Can we compare this little follow with the monster whale? Yes, indeed we can. We can make a list of their differences and a list of their similarities. And strange to say, the second list would be much, much longer. For all living creatures resemble each other much morn than they differ.

The whale is a giant, the amoeba a mite. The whale's body is composed of a variety of single cells. The amoeba's body is but a single cell. And that is almost the extent of the difference between them.

Both need food. The whale gobbles up tons of plankton from the ocean. The amoeba absorbs scraps of debris floating in the water. Both need oxygen.

The whale takes in oxygen from the air when he comes to the surface to breathe. The amoeba soaks in oxygen from the water.

Both the whale and the amoeba are alive rind can move about at will. All living cells, whether they belong to a whale or an amoeba, are filled with jelly‑like fluid called protoplasm. This makes them vastly different from non‑living rocks, water and clouds. For living things must always try to hand on life.

Both the whale and. the amoeba hand on life to new generations. Mama Blue Whale gives birth to a 25‑foot baby. The amoeba multiplies by dividing. It simply divides into two from time to time. And there is one more difference between the monster and the mite. The whale grows old and dies. The tiny amoeba is almost immortal. So, after all, he has the last laugh on the big fellow.