Rectangular ciliates?

[tabkiel]

Hi everyone! Found these little guys in my slide, I really don't know what they are. My guess would be young Peritrich ciliates but I'm not sure...

As you can see, their mouths resemble that of a Vorticella but they seem to have no stalk attatched to them, so I'm strongly inclined to think they're young Vorticella.

https://youtu.be/EbX9_5d97u0

Thanks in advance,
~ Tenshi

[DonSchaeffer]

You are right. These are very iinteresting.

[janvangastel]

Nice video. I don't know what species this is. They look a little vorticella like indeed. I have also seen them in some water samples. Sometimes they can move very fast.

[mazo4033]

Very cool video! It looks like a telotroch, which is when stalked peritrichs like Vorticella, for example, enter a phase where they are free-swimming and detached from their stalk.

[tabkiel]

Thanks for the responses everyone! I'll keep an eye out for any other specimens and try to post them

[Bruce Taylor]

Yes, they're sessile peritrichs. They don't seem to have a posterior wreath of cilia, so these are not fully-formed telotrochs. However, the cylindrical shape of the cell suggests that they've begun transforming into true telotrochs. Since they have lost their stalks already, we can't identify these below order Sessilida.