A detailed morphological and tracer study of endocytosis via coated pits in Paramecium multimicronucleatum was undertaken to compare endocytic processes in a free-living protozoon with similar processes in higher organisms. Permanent pits at the cell surface enlarge, become coated and give rise to coated vesicles (188 +/- 41 nm in diameter) that enclose fluid-phase markers such as horseradish peroxidase (HRP). Both the pits and vesicles are labeled by the immunogold technique when a monoclonal antibody (mAb) raised against the plasma membrane of this cell is applied to cryosections. The HRP is delivered to an early endosome compartment, which also shares the plasma membrane antigen. The early endosome, as shown in quick-freeze deep-etch replicas of chemically unfixed cells, is a definitive non-reticular compartment composed of many individual flattened cisternal units of 0.2 to 0.7 microns diameter, each potentially bearing one or more approximately 80-nm-wide coated evaginations. These coated evaginations on the early endosomes contain HRP but are not labeled by the mAb. The coated evaginations pinch off to form a second group of coated vesicles (90 +/- 17 nm in diameter), which can be differentiated from those formed from coated pits by their smaller size, absence of plasma membrane antigen and their location somewhat deeper into the cytoplasm. This study shows a striking similarity between protozoons and mammalian cells in their overall early endosomal machinery and in the ability of early endosomes to sort cargo from plasma membrane components. The vesicles identified in this study form two distinct populations of putative shuttle vesicles, pre-endosomal (large) and early endosome-derived vesicles (small), which facilitate incoming and outgoing traffic from the early endosomes.