I was photographing a Paramecium when it began to divide.
At 2.53 pm the first sign of an impending division was noticed, a dent in one side and a faint horizontal line. Final separation, of the now 2 individuals, occurred 36 minutes later. Amazing.
Quick & Dirty images (better ones to follow).
NUM10115[/i]
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.
Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives
Looking forward to the followup. I have recently seen a number of these about ready to separate, but could not follow them long enough to see the actual deed.
Top image is 14.5 minutes from the start of dividing.
There are so many superb images (far better than mine) of Paramecium on PMG.net that only one of my images showed a sufficiently different behaviour to make posting marginally acceptable; i.e., lower image at about 1 second after the undigested food was ejected.
NUM10125
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.
Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives
"Marginally acceptable", eh? Um, the bar's not that high yet.
I've spent a lot of time watching paramecia over the years, and I don't recall seeing this waste ejection process. Certainly I would not have seen it this clearly using any of the scopes I had available. Many thanks for the image.
Hey Rik, you haven't been paying attention.
Without slighting Charles' work, take a look at ABEL's most recent Paramecium; that a pretty high bar even to equal let alone surpass HERE
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.
Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives
And here I thought they split on the long axis. I must have been seeing conjugation. Now that I see yours, I have seen some that must have been in the process of division. I thought they were injured from being folded over when they went up the pipette. They weren't swimming to well, so I kind of glanced at them and passed on. LOL Ridiculous, now that I think about it.
