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Found it in a few weeks-old pond culture that I recently fed with milk and oats. The populations of Paramecium and rotifers exploded but this critter is also regularly present on my slides. Some specimens have long flagella, some have a short one (maybe different species).






At some point the slide started drying out and it rounded up before dying (the cytoplasmic contents spilled out; flagella not visible in this shot). The nuclear structure is clearly visible and so are the cytoplasmic granules.




Regrettably I still haven't bothered to install Magic lantern on my Canon 50D so instead of a video I made a gif to give you an idea of its shape-shifting ablities (images taken approximately 3 seconds apart from each other).



BR
Wes

Could not find any record of a dancing flagellate - with those moves you would think there would be!

What is this about Magic Lantern, can you not take a video without it?

Its a firmware add-on that would enable my camera to shoot raw video.

Hopefully this should help some: https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... _Organisms

You may want to concentrate your search among the heterotrophic euglenoids. They are well known shape shifters.

Thanks for the guide, looks very useful!

Here is some characteristic shape shifting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAa3h2aBR3E

Cool, another example below. I didn't know about the existence of Euglenid metaboly until now, fascinating stuff!

Great shots Wes and a fascinating subject !
Dan

Thanks Dan

This is Peranema. If you observe the cell for a while, you'll see it glide through the water with its flagellum rigidly extended in front. As it progresses, it periodically pauses, contracts and sort of squirms in place. It can also wriggle through narrow apertures in clumps of debris. When squirming along like that, Peranema can look almost amoeboid.

Bruce Taylor wrote:This is Peranema.

Many thanks for the ID Bruce, its well appreciated.

Hi Wes,
the animated GIF is a really nice way to show the shape shifting as the individual steps are more obvious than a video running at 25 fps.
For people with a lousy or expensive internet connection it is also easier to access.

Bob