A diatom?

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 11:15 am

From the pond across the street... Found this guy swimming around. Never knew diatoms could actually move. Thought they were sessile. That is of course if I am correct in my (general) identification that this is a diatom.

I cannot recall the magnification - would it not be nice if the objective could be recorded in the Exif? It must have been 20x/40x I think. But the photo is cropped.

pwnell · Post by **pwnell** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 11:35 am

And under phase contrast one can see internal structures not otherwise visible. I am a novice when it comes to biology but love to play around with the photography aspect.

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Sun Mar 18, 2012 8:24 am

My bet is 40x. These diatoms are all so small it almost requires it. I too am more of a photographer than a biologist and a microscope is just a more complex lens to strap to the camera. But it sure is fun.

uaalgae · Post by **uaalgae** » Thu May 10, 2012 4:33 pm

There are no flagella found in the diatoms except for the flagellated sperm of the centric diatoms. The cells can move pretty fast by producing muscilage through a structure called a raphe. They can change direction very quickly as the other end of the raphe starts secreting the slime. You can detect the raphe as a line running the length of frustule while in the valve (looking down on the top). This type of movement is called gliding. This allows them to be some of the few algae to live on mud. If they get covered up, they simply glide toward the light to escape the mud.
Pretty cool,
Don

Bruce Taylor · Post by **Bruce Taylor** » Thu May 10, 2012 5:02 pm

Thanks for the explanation, Don. I've wondered how diatoms get about.