Ciliate from the North Sea

[janvangastel]

I found this ciliate in my North Sea sample. It looks 'hypotrich like'. It is about 38 microns long.

[Bruce Taylor]

Well, that's an interesting critter! It's a spirotrich, certainly. I suspect it's not in subclass Hypotrichia but rather in Euplotia (Euplotidium, Diophrys, Gastrocirrhus, etc). We seem to be looking at it from the dorsal aspect, which makes it a bit difficult to see how everything fits together. I see a big AZM, and numerous frontoventral cirri. I'm interpreting the trailing posterior cirri as transversal cirri, and the short group on the dorsal surface as caudal cirri, but I might be mistaken. The contractile vacuole might be a clue. Unfortunately, I'm not very familiar with marine ciliates, so I don't recognize this guy!

[Rapidray]

Great video...thanks for sharing it with us.