Whats in your pond?

Paramecium as imaged through my microscope

As I wished to upload moving images to this blog, I set myself the problem of finding out how to convert a mov. clip, taken with my compact camera , to GIF format. The above film of 'Paramecium' was taken through my microscope last summer. My grandson, Felix fished this little 'beastie' out of a nearby stream using one of 'Toots' jam-jars tied to a length of hairy string.

Paramecium are very common protozoans and are characterized by their jerky motion with sudden and frequent reversals of direction. They are from 100 to 350 um long and members of Phylum Ciliophora.


Phylum Ciliophora:  These creatures are called Ciliates and have hundreds of tiny cilia which beat in unison to propel the protists through the water.  Shown at left is a school classic, the Paramecium. 

 Often cilia are fused together in rows or tufts (called cirri) and are used for special functions such as food gathering.  In addition to locomotion, the Paramecium uses cilia to sweep food down into it's central channel or gullet.  Other ciliates include the Stentor, Blepharisma, Bursaria, and Vorticella.

Volvox as photographed by Felix and Papa

Volvox is a chlorophyte, or green algae. It exists as a spherical colony. Each alga member of the colony has two whip-like hairs called flagella. Individual alga are connected to each other by thin strands of cytoplasm that enable the whole colony to swim in unison.The individual alga have small red eye spots.

Why not check out what's living in your pond, lake, stream or river? From the very large to the very small, from the very close to the very far away, there is always something interesting to find out!