Heart of Simocephalus vetulus

gpmatthews · Post by **gpmatthews** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 12:15 pm

Upper picture shows Simocephalus heart in systole (contracted), lower in diastole (relaxed).

Both pictures on live anaesthetised specimen using Zeiss StandardGFL microscope with Leitz x16 ICT objective (DIC) and Olympus P15 ocular.

bernhardinho · Post by **bernhardinho** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 2:27 pm

Hi Graham,

sounds interesting, but may be I'm blind: I don't see the slightest difference in the two images. Could you please point out, where the heart is?

Bernhard

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 2:30 pm

Okay, I can see the heart but

...what is a Simocephalus vetulus

Anyway some very good images there Graham, excellent!

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 5:38 pm

'Tis one of the water fleas, if Google serves.

And I believe the heart is just to the right of image center.

These things are often interesting as an animation.

Graham, may I try animating these and post out the result?

--Rik

gpmatthews · Post by **gpmatthews** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 5:44 pm

By all means please try the animation. The heart is the bag like thing in the centre. In the contracted state it has a sort of pointy bottom ( to the left) and when relaxed is more rounded. It is quite difficult to image, and would probably make a better movie. Simocephalus is a Daphnia-like water-flea (- thought the images would get you guessing!)

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 6:44 pm

Here you go. Looks pretty cool!

Graham, how fast does this thing actually beat?

--Rik

PS. If you don't see the animation, check your browser settings. There might be an animation option that's turned off.

gpmatthews · Post by **gpmatthews** » Sun Nov 12, 2006 11:09 pm

Rik - A little faster than this and rather more erratic, but your animation shows the heart action superbly - thanks for this, it makes the whole thing much clearer.

bernhardinho · Post by **bernhardinho** » Mon Nov 13, 2006 4:28 am

Gee, that's great, many thanks Rik.

Bernhard