What is the difference between plant cells and animal cells?
Cell Cousins
What is the difference between plant cells and animal cells?
Plant cells and animal cells are cousins. They come from the same family album, both tiny living bricks that build leaves, livers, lettuces, and llamas. Squint at them under a microscope and they look pretty similar. But move in for a closer look, and you'll spot a few things one cousin owns that the other simply doesn't.
Let's start with what they SHARE, because it's most of the list. Both cells are wrapped in a thin, jelly-soft skin called the cell membrane — think of it as a balloon that decides what gets in and out. Inside floats a goopy filling called cytoplasm, and both keep a control room called the nucleus, which holds the instructions for building everything.
