Diatom

[gekko]

I found this in a water sample from a muddy pothole in the yard after it had rained. Objective: 40x; illumination: DIC (left) and cross-polarized light:

[75RR]

Nice. I like the juxtaposition of the two illumination techniques.
Is that boggy ground? Find it hard to imagine diatoms in soil.
Found a reference that says: Diatoms can also be found in terrestrial environments in the soil where moisture is at least periodic (Bold, 1978).
It would be nice if they were a little more specific, periodic can encompass just about any time frame as long as it occurs at regular intervals.

[Manfred]

Gekko,

the quality of your pictures is fabulous,
best regards
Manfred

PS.: Hope to have more time to participate this forum in future

[gekko]

Nice. I like the juxtaposition of the two illumination techniques.
Is that boggy ground? Find it hard to imagine diatoms in soil.
Found a reference that says: Diatoms can also be found in terrestrial environments in the soil where moisture is at least periodic (Bold, 1978).
It would be nice if they were a little more specific, periodic can encompass just about any time frame as long as it occurs at regular intervals.

Thank you, 75RR. I don't know much about where these critters live, except that I can almost always find them in soil (our yard has very poor quality soil in which very little will grow except for moss).

the quality of your pictures is fabulous,
best regards
Manfred
PS.: Hope to have more time to participate this forum in future

Thank you very much, Manfred, for your kind words. I sure hope you will have the time to show us more of your amazing images.

[vasselle]

Bonjour Gekko
Très belles photos
Cordialement seb