asexual reproduction in amoeba has for some time been considered rather noteworthy. Generally, eukaryotic reproduction is sexual, vegetative reproduction in plants notwithstanding.
My initial introduction to amoeba was like anybody else's. Later in laboratory medical microbiology training using the standard iodine methods, the thingy became more nasty in mind.
My understanding is genetic analysis has shown that amoeba are or recently were sexual just like the rest of us beasts.
(in my use of beasts and bugs; beast = eukaryote, bug = prokaryote, it was a distinction held to in gradual school, so the bugs often are binary fission types, and the beasts are almost always sexual, and hence why amoeba have been long regarded as unusual)