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Mystery Micrograph #19

By Psi Wavefunction on Saturday, March 20, 2010
Time for another one. Christopher Taylor's unidentifiable SEM in Name That Bug 14 made me threaten to do a random obscure flagellate for my next MM, so here it is:

Scalebars: 13-16: 5um 17-18: 0.5um; to be referenced later

I'd like the genus for this one. Kekeke... *maniacal laughter*
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15 comments:

  1. JohanMarch 22, 2010 at 12:54:00 AM PDT

    Is it related to Mallomonas?

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  2. JohanMarch 22, 2010 at 1:07:00 AM PDT

    Chysosphaerella maybe?

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  3. Psi WavefunctionMarch 22, 2010 at 1:23:00 AM PDT

    No and no. I can see how the scales are misleading though! =D

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  4. AnonymousMarch 22, 2010 at 7:46:00 AM PDT

    Are the scalebars in 17-18 supposed to be 0.5um?

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  5. Psi WavefunctionMarch 22, 2010 at 11:00:00 PM PDT

    Yes! Thanks for catching that. Not a good idea to sleep'n'type, apparently...

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  6. AnonymousMarch 23, 2010 at 8:12:00 AM PDT

    Hm, so those things are tiny. I had thought they might be some kind of cyst at first.

    Is it an Ochromonas?

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  7. Psi WavefunctionMarch 24, 2010 at 11:24:00 PM PDT

    Nope. Seems like Ochramonas lacks scales, or even a cell wall or pellicle: Bouck & Brown 1973 JCB

    While looking that up, came across a cool site hosting a chapter:
    The cell surface of flagellates by AG Becker 2000

    The phylogenies are a bit screwed up (since it was 2000, before the fall of Archaezoa), but pretty EMs!

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  8. JohanMarch 25, 2010 at 12:00:00 AM PDT

    Is it a Thaumatomastix?

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  9. Psi WavefunctionMarch 25, 2010 at 6:26:00 PM PDT

    Scalier and much, much closer. Still wrong genus though.

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  10. SteevMarch 27, 2010 at 8:11:00 PM PDT

    Calkinsia?

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  11. Psi WavefunctionMarch 27, 2010 at 9:55:00 PM PDT

    Nope. Calkinsia is way 'hairier', that is, covered with bacteria. Johan was -really- close, by the way.

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  12. JohanMarch 29, 2010 at 2:32:00 AM PDT

    Finally found it: Thaumatomonas coloniensis!

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  13. Psi WavefunctionMarch 29, 2010 at 1:44:00 PM PDT

    Yes! =D

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  14. AnonymousMarch 30, 2010 at 5:54:00 AM PDT

    So, what are the structures in 17-18? My boss and I could not figure out what they could be. I assume they're something specific to Thaumatomonas?

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  15. Psi WavefunctionMarch 30, 2010 at 8:07:00 PM PDT

    Those are actually its surface scales. There's a diagram showing its anatomy, but it's in Russian and the copy I got through interlibrary loan is really REALLY shitty. I'll translate the original paper (and diagram) when I get around to writing up the post for this organism. I may even have to redraw the diagrams. The photocopy/scan/fax of the paper is so bad I can barely make out the letters! Have to guess some words by context and vague outline of their shape...

    This is the source paper for the image, in English but not as detailed: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/118000458/HTMLSTART

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