Animal Cell Diagram With Cilia and Flagella

All 10 parts on the diagram

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On the cell 4

Cilia Short, hair-like stalks that come many to a cell. They beat like oars. One of them is a cilium.
Flagellum A long whip built like a cilium. A cell has one or a few, and waves run along it.
Basal body The short barrel a cilium or flagellum grows from. It is built like a centriole.
Plasma membrane The membrane of the cell. It runs on over every cilium and flagellum as a sheath.

Cut across 6

Outer doublet Two microtubules fused side by side. Nine doublets form the ring of the shaft.
Central pair Two single microtubules in the middle of the shaft. With the nine doublets they make the 9+2 pattern.
Dynein arms Motor proteins fixed to each doublet. They push on the next doublet, and that bends the shaft.
Radial spoke A rod from each doublet in toward the central pair.
Nexin link A tie that joins each doublet to the next. The links hold the ring together.
Microtubule triplet Three microtubules fused in a row. Nine triplets form the barrel of a basal body.

How this list was compiled: Every name was checked on 2026-10-01 and kept only where two independent sources use it. (1) Wikipedia, text only: Cilium, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cilium ; Flagellum; Axoneme; Basal body. (2) Kimball's Biology Pages, Cilia and Flagella, https://www.biology-pages.info/C/Cilia.html . (3) E. V. Wong, Cells: Molecules and Mechanisms, section 12.9, Cell Motility, an open college textbook, https://bio.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Cell_and_Molecular_Biology/Cells_-_Molecules_and_Mechanisms_(Wong)/12%3A_Cytoskeleton/12.09%3A_Cell_Motility . Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-01 from plain geometry; nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

Some animal cells bear many short cilia; a few, like sperm cells, bear one long flagellum. The first drawing puts one of each side by side. The second cuts across the shaft, which is built the same way in both.

Read the full guide

Cilia or flagella

Many short stalks on a cell are cilia. One long stalk, or a few, is a flagellum. Each grows from a basal body just under the plasma membrane, and the membrane covers the stalk.

The 9+2 pattern

Cut across, the shaft shows nine outer doublets round a central pair. This bundle is the axoneme. The basal body under it has nine triplets and no central pair.

Count the circles in each set: two in a doublet of the shaft, three in a triplet of the basal body.

Questions and answers

What is the difference between cilia and flagella?

Mostly length and number. Cilia are short and come many to a cell; flagella are longer and come one or a few to a cell. Inside, the two are built alike.

Do all animal cells have cilia and flagella?

No. Beating cilia are found only on certain cells, such as those lining the airways, and a flagellum is the tail of a sperm cell. That is why a general animal cell diagram often leaves them out.

What does 9+2 mean?

It describes the shaft cut across: nine doublets of microtubules in a ring, plus two single microtubules in the center. The whole bundle is called the axoneme.

How do cilia and flagella bend?

Dynein arms on one doublet push against the next doublet, so the microtubules slide past one another. The sliding bends the shaft, first to one side and then to the other.