(Naked) Amoebas (video, ~7 min)

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gekko
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(Naked) Amoebas (video, ~7 min)

#1 Post by gekko » Thu Feb 12, 2015 2:29 am

What is happening here? There appear to be 2 amoebas (one of them may be a Thecamoeba). Any explanation will be appreciated.
A still image (a focus stack) with a scale bar is shown at the beginning to give an idea of size. Except for two short sections at the start and end of the video which are at normal speed, the video is shown at 800% normal speed in order to shorten it to a manageable duration. [Objective: 20x; illumination: DIC; camera: Olympus E-P1].


(Please click on vimeo to view video full size in HD).

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vasselle
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Re: (Naked) Amoebas (video, ~7 min)

#2 Post by vasselle » Thu Feb 12, 2015 10:49 am

Bonjour Gekko
Splendide vidéo j'adore.
Merci pour le partage
Cordialement seb
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gekko
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Re: (Naked) Amoebas (video, ~7 min)

#3 Post by gekko » Fri Feb 13, 2015 4:48 pm

Thank you very much, seb, for your comment.

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Re: (Naked) Amoebas (video, ~7 min)

#4 Post by Peter » Fri Feb 13, 2015 6:12 pm

Hi Gekko,
Could this be the later stages of binary fission?
Peter.

charlie g
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Re: (Naked) Amoebas (video, ~7 min)

#5 Post by charlie g » Sat Feb 14, 2015 5:29 pm

Wonderful DIC contrast of the streaming inclusions within those two beasts, Gekko, thank you!
If that was simple specimen wetmount taken from their habitat..what a delightful encounter you imaged.

Or did you set up that confrontation? With protists that large, you get a good idea what they eat,,,well by just looking at them. I never myself saw two large amobae entangeled like these two are. They seem to be two different species, and a few times it looked like one of the duo formed a large open cup-shape to engulf the other!

These two are so large that you actually could tease them apart with a glass whisker...and see if they again entangle.

It for me brought back memories of The SeaHawks at our last Super Bowl...sigghh.

Thanks for shareing, Gekko. charlie guevara

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gekko
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Re: (Naked) Amoebas (video, ~7 min)

#6 Post by gekko » Sat Feb 14, 2015 11:34 pm

Peter wrote:Hi Gekko,
Could this be the later stages of binary fission?
Peter.
Hi Peter. Thank you for your comment. I kind of doubt that this is binary fission because it looks like the two amoebas are not of the same genus.
charlie g. wrote:Wonderful DIC contrast of the streaming inclusions within those two beasts, Gekko, thank you!
If that was simple specimen wetmount taken from their habitat..what a delightful encounter you imaged.

Or did you set up that confrontation? With protists that large, you get a good idea what they eat,,,well by just looking at them. I never myself saw two large amobae entangeled like these two are. They seem to be two different species, and a few times it looked like one of the duo formed a large open cup-shape to engulf the other!

These two are so large that you actually could tease them apart with a glass whisker...and see if they again entangle.

It for me brought back memories of The SeaHawks at our last Super Bowl...sigghh.

Thanks for shareing, Gekko. charlie guevara
Hi charlie, good to see you here again after such a long absence and many thsnks for your comments. Your comments are always very interesting! Yes, it was a simple wetmount and there was a cover glass, so teasing them apart would not have been easy (in my hands it would have been difficult even if there were no cover glass :) ). No, you give me too much credit to suggest that I setup the confrontation :) Yes, I believe they were two different species, and I think the flat one is a Thecamoeba sp. -- see, for example:
http://www.arcella.nl/thecamoeba-quadrilineata

And thank you for intending to send Oliver a paper for the magazine: I always find your articles and posts wonderful to read! Thanks again!

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75RR
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Re: (Naked) Amoebas (video, ~7 min)

#7 Post by 75RR » Sun Feb 15, 2015 11:26 am

Great video gekko.
What storage card do you use? The original footage must have been huge.
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gekko
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Re: (Naked) Amoebas (video, ~7 min)

#8 Post by gekko » Tue Feb 17, 2015 2:43 pm

75RR wrote:Great video gekko.
What storage card do you use? The original footage must have been huge.
Thank you very much, 75RR. I use either 8 GB or 16 GB SD cards. My Olympus E-P1 camera limits each clip to a file size of 2 GB (which turns out to be about 7 or 8 minutes of video), so I think the video comprised 6 or 7 files, and I probably used (parts of) 2 cards.

In terms of my original question, my first impression was that this might be conjugation as it appeared ot me that material might be flowing between the two, but I doubted that (1) because the two amoebas appeared not to be of the same species or even the same genus, and (2) conjugation (at least my impression was that it) occurred while the two critters were sitting side-by-side, not moving like that. The movement is somewhat reminiscent of binary fission (Peter's suggestion) of some ciliates (e.g., my video of binary fission in Colpoda), but again the problem is that the two amoebas are not of the same species: or are they? Lots of questions!

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Re: (Naked) Amoebas (video, ~7 min)

#9 Post by Peter » Tue Feb 17, 2015 6:33 pm

Hi Gekko,
These two amoeba could be of the same genus something like A. vespertilio.
Alternatively, one may originally have been trying to eat the other, this behaviour is not unheard of however, I have never observed that. Any amoeba I have observed coming into contact with each other have withdrawn very rapidly as if stung.
Peter.

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Re: (Naked) Amoebas (video, ~7 min)

#10 Post by gekko » Thu Feb 19, 2015 12:10 pm

Peter wrote:Hi Gekko,
These two amoeba could be of the same genus something like A. vespertilio.
Alternatively, one may originally have been trying to eat the other, this behaviour is not unheard of however, I have never observed that. Any amoeba I have observed coming into contact with each other have withdrawn very rapidly as if stung.
Peter.
Hi Peter,
Thank you for your helpful replies. I've not seen such behavior either: once I did see one amoeba contact another a couple of times (and I posted the video, probably on the old forum), but they ignored each other and continued going their own way. But the behavior of these two is fascinating. Thanks again!

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