Winter Prairie Flagellates

[DonSchaeffer]

In Winnipeg, Winter is not a good time to search for living things. Temperatures are below freezing the entire season and often close to -40 degrees. My indoor mudpuddle microbe collection started out with a range of creatures including amoebas, large ciliates, multi-celled creatures. But as Winter dragged on the range of species quickly constricted. Now my mudpuddle has narrowed to include a thin distribution of small flagellates, bacteria, and a peculiar group of very small creatures that move like ciliates but are barely visible under the high power of the microscope. It is interesting to see this peculiar distribution of primitive organisms.

https://youtu.be/fYlLraHtO9g