The mattamoeba replaced its ancestor, the otter ferramoeba. Rather than trying to compete with the matting ferroamoeba, it now feeds on them. It now is more stretchy like its distant ancestors. This allows it to engulf its prey with it pseudopods and digest it. This can be difficult with a colony who's cells cluster together. Thus its uses its psuedopods to pry them apart. Like their ancestors they can withstand the high pressure and extreme heat of the vents. They are tinted reddish from the iron it gets from the matting ferroamoeba. They can reach 50 micrometers in size.
Living Relatives (click to show/hide)
These are randomly selected, and organized from lowest to highest shared taxon. (This may correspond to similarity more than actual relation)
