NEET BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -Antonie van Leeuwenhoek-a cloth merchant by trade-is credited for the discovery of single-celled microorganisms, which he called “wee animalcules” (little animals) (Dobell, 1932).

Detailed explanation-2: -Leeuwenhoek looked at animal and plant tissues, at mineral crystals and at fossils. He was the first to see microscopic foraminifera, which he described as “little cockles. . . no bigger than a coarse sand-grain.” He discovered blood cells, and was the first to see living sperm cells of animals.

Detailed explanation-3: -Leeuwenhoek is universally acknowledged as the father of microbiology. He discovered both protists and bacteria [1]. More than being the first to see this unimagined world of ‘animalcules’, he was the first even to think of looking-certainly, the first with the power to see.

Detailed explanation-4: -Animalcule (’little animal’, from Latin animal + the diminutive suffix-culum) is an old term for microscopic organisms that included bacteria, protozoans, and very small animals. The word was invented by 17th-century Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek to refer to the microorganisms he observed in rainwater.