MicrobeHunter.com Microscopy Forum

Found this giant amoeba yesterday and it has something stuck to its posterior. The glob is more reddish than the image shows and there may have been a diatom stuck to it also. I've a cool video but it's in the wrong file extension. The amoeba moves by creating a clear bubble out in front of it with a subsequent spilling of all the stuff into the bubble.

Is this just detritus stuck to its uroidal structure or something else? Could this be a standard Proteus amoeba?

This link has interesting info on amoeba:

http://amoeba.ifmo.ru/guide.htm

A bit amusing - I found myself suddenly scared of my pond and brain eating amoeba after watching this guy on the slide.

Heather

I just noticed this post ! No answer yet ? I wish I could help. I do want to thank you for the link you included. I have become obsessed by amoebas lately and really want to learn all I can. Also, I understand your fear. After seeing my first amoeba I have started wearing gloves when collecting samples for my pond aquarium and when taking and returning samples to it ! Happy amoeba viewing

They are scary somehow. That flagellated one you posted video of looked like something out of a microbe horror film.

I eventually decided that 'mine' just had some organic matter plus a wayward diatom stuck to its posterior. Maybe it was a Pelomyxa spp? Now I've forgotten.

It's interesting to note that amoeboid protozoans tend to have significantly more DNA than humans. To me that makes amoebas seem even more mysterious. Granted many plants and animals have more DNA than humans but something as small as an amoeba? Hmmm. I wonder if like with rotifers, they can patch their own DNA and cobble gene bits from other organisms into their genomes.