#asterionella

[microbes-in-hats]

Asterionella sp.

Photo credit: Gerd Guenther

[adelicateculturecell]

“Microbe names are weird and wonderful to dive into because they can tell us so much about both the organism and also the person who named them.”

Journey to the Microcosmos: How to Name a Microbe

Images Originally Captured by Jam’s Germs

Quote Spoken by Hank Green

[adelicateculturecell]

"Some choanoflagellates are non-motile, meaning they spend most of their life not moving around. Instead, they just stick themselves to a nice, sturdy surface and grab whatever food passes by. There are also motile choanoflagellates, which move around with their flagella, but in kind of a weird way. You see, other flagellates use the twisting rotor movement of their flagella to pull them around the microcosmos, but choanoflagellates use their flagellum to push themselves through the water."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Getting to Know Our Single-Celled Ancestors

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

[adelicateculturecell]

Journey to the Microcosmos- How to Name a Microbe

Images Originally Captured by Jam’s Germs

[adelicateculturecell]

Journey to the Microcosmos- How to Name a Microbe

Images Originally Captured by Jam’s Germs

Phacus circumflexus 400x, Tardigrade 600x, Asterionella 400x, Bacteria, cyanobacteria & Phacus orbicularis 1000x, Phacus smulkowskianus 1000x, Heliozoa 400x

[adelicateculturecell]

"All of these things make choanoflagellates interesting to watch, but if you're looking at them and wondering how they could possibly be the closest relatives to animals, we don't blame you. What made biologists look at them and see any kind of kinship to animals? Why not some other protist? To see the resemblance, you have to go to something a bit more fundamental when it comes to animals: the sponge."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Getting to Know Our Single-Celled Ancestors

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

Choanoflagellate and diatoms 630x, Choanoflagellates on Asterionella 630x, Choanoflagellates 630x, Choanoflagellates 630x, Choanoflagellates 630x, Choanoflagellates and a diatom fustule 630x

[mossrockpog]

I'm on my behavior

(Pictured is Asterionella, a diatomic algae)

[exploratorium]

Outer space, or underwater? This cluster of cells is a chain of diatoms (glass-like phytoplankton) called Asterionella. They get their name from the distinct star shape of the linked chains. Asterionella is one of more than 25 different kinds of phytoplankton that the Exploratorium Living Systems lab staff might spot in a single water sample collected here at Pier 15 during the Spring Bloom. This work is part of the Ocean Observatory Project, funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.