My name is Billy D and I’m here to say I heart diatoms in a major way.
-
This photo of Chondrodendron tomentosum was taken by Stephen S. Nagy
billy dalto
Tagged: diatom party
Sometimes I wonder if I’m not serious enough about diatoms.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Eukaryotes aren’t really my bag but I’ve heard that the pretty ones are diatoms. Can anyone confirm or deny the identity of my friend in center field here?
Oh my! There’s a good chance Damhnait has inadvertently crashed a diatom party. Diatoms are possibly the most abundant eukaryotic aquatic organisms, so they make frequent appearance in water samples. When I took phycology in college, I could pretty much count on finding at least a few diatoms mingling with other regulars like Spirogyra and their ancient prokaryotic friend Spirulina on days when we were asked to collect samples for class.
Diatoms are usually divided into two broad groups: pennate and centric. Our little friend is clearly not in the latter group, whose members are typified by radial symmetry (I’ve previously posted a few examples of centric diatoms). Particularly in the larger version of the above image, there appear to be parallel riblike costae running the length of the cell, a feature commonly seen in the frustules of pennate diatoms (costae can be clearly seen in several of the diatoms here).
Unfortunately, I lack the expertise to make a more precise classification, which in diatoms is generally done by closely examining the details of their frustules. Moreover, there’s some possibility that I’m completely mistaken, and this is actually something that belongs in Raynor’s wunderkammer.
Oceanographer Paul Hargreaves and artist Faye Darling used an electron microscope to capture this image of a diatom – a tiny single-celled marine algae – that looks exactly like lips.
BillyDalto!!! Can I bring this to your next diatom party?!? Can it also be a taco party?!?
I couldn’t have anticipated this; I’m actually at the point in my life where diatoms come to me. I’m so accustomed to trawling the internet for diatoms pics that this possibility had never occurred to me.
While riding across the Golden Gate last week on a particularly beautiful day, the depths of my mind were churned in such a way that an unlikely duet, one I might well have heard for the first time as a passenger in my parents’ silver Volvo station wagon on the way to swim practice, made its way to the surface of my consciousness. As I approached the Marin Headlands, insulated from the cold air by the warmth of exertion, the song playing in my head was “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life.”
The diatom above is from Oamaru, a hotbed of diatom activity from the Late Eocene to Early Oligocene.
(Source: olympusbioscapes.com)
“There exists in various quarters of the world a peculiar earthly deposit known as Infusorial Earth. This dust is common at Oran in Algeria, in Bermuda, at Richmond, and in Ireland and Elsewhere. In Sweden and Norway similar dust is known as Berg-Mehl or “mountain meal”, and is used to mix with the dough from which bread is manufactured. On examining these earths under the microscope, they are found to consist of collections of fossil Diatoms.”
Diatoms!
(via petitchou)
The diatom Didymosphenia geminata secretes a mucopolysaccharide, and in the right conditions will overgrow, creating slimy macroscopic mats that cling to the bottom of lakes and streams. These mats have earned this species the nickname rock snot. The question: would this alga be less of a nuisance if we were to give it a more pleasant name?
-
Photo by Stephen S. Nagy
The centric diatom Arachnoidiscus, photographed by Michael Shribak. Some species of this diatom can grow quite large, up to a diameter of nearly one millimeter. Although my reaction may be atypical, I should mention that staring at this image all weekend has totally scrambled my proprioception. Please proceed with care.
(Source: olympusbioscapes.com)
This glassy beast has languished in my drafts folder for too long. It is an example of Biddulphia capucina, photographed by Robert Lavigne.
(Source: nikonsmallworld.com)
Correction
On October 31st, I told a local resident that Lepidoptera, the insect group including moths and butterflies, is a family. It is actually an order.
I regret my mistake.
-
The image above is an arrangement of diatoms and butterfly scales, and is from Nikon Small World.
