I found this very nice ciliate (I think it is a ciliate, but I am not sure about that) in my North Sea sample. No clue what (family, genus, species) it is. Never saw something that looks like it in my fresh water samples. Length is about 220 microns.
Unknown ciliate (?) from the North Sea
- janvangastel
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Re: Unknown ciliate (?) from the North Sea
Sparklingly clear video. The midventral "zigzag" complex isn't completely visible, but it appears to be a species of Uroleptus. However, Berger suggests that Uroleptus might be an exclusively freshwater genus, in which case this could be a species of Psammomitra (evidently, very common in marine sediments, and recorded from the North Sea).
- janvangastel
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Re: Unknown ciliate (?) from the North Sea
Thanks again Bruce.
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Re: Unknown ciliate (?) from the North Sea
My own suspicion is that Uroleptus do appear in marine environments. Philip G. Carey includes several species in his book on marine ciliates, and they frequently appear in diversity studies of estuaries and marine species checklists, etc. YouTube microscopy videographer Francisco Pujante frequently records them, and as far as I know he does most of his collecting in a coastal lagoon.