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Could this be a foram?

By Psi Wavefunction on Friday, October 30, 2009
Edit: No. Turns out to be a pollen grain. Thanks Chris!
(pollen morphology is quite fascinating and breathtakingly diverse, btw! Plant sex is weird...)

Found this in a marine benthic sample this past spring, never got around to cropping it:

(40x DIC; obsessive-compulsive optical sectioning alert...)

Could this be some sort of foraminiferan? Reminds me of something Globigerina-oid, but if I recall it's planktonic, not benthic - although those things are quite capable of 'littering' once they die. Any thoughts?

(can provide a higher res image if interested)
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2 comments:

  1. Christopher TaylorOctober 30, 2009 at 1:21:00 AM PDT

    It's a conifer pollen grain (see here for a picture of one).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Psi WavefunctionOctober 30, 2009 at 1:29:00 AM PDT

    Oh right, PLANTS. Those things. They make pollen. I forgot. (Arabidopsis work lets you forget about such details...)

    Thanks! Damn, I was excited though... =(

    ReplyDelete

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