#frontonia

"Kahl estimated that it took him about 9 months to feel confident in his drawing and identification skills. And from there, he went all out. His first monograph was published in 1926, when he was 49. His last publication came around 1935. And in that period of time, he published 21 papers that totaled around 1800 pages of descriptions and illustrations of around 700 new species of ciliates. Yes, 700."

Journey to the Microcosmos- The Schoolteacher Who Discovered 700 Ciliates

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

"Now for our next mystery: this is a frontonia, and from a distance, there's probably not anything particularly notable about it. It's swiming and hitting little bits of debris, which is pretty much the lifestyle of a lot of microbes. When you increase the magnification, you can see that many of its vacuoles are packed with tiny rods. If you've been with us for a while, that maybe looks a little bit familiar... maybe a bit like the paramecium we've foudn taht were infected with a bacteria called holospora. At first glance, this resemblance isn't too surprising. Frontonia and paramecia are both ciliates, and we found this infected Frontonia in the same pond where we've found our holospora-infected Paramecium."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Unsolved Mysteries of the Microcosmos

"But this is the first ever record of a holospora-like infection in Frontonia. Unlike paramecium, where the holospora infected the nuclei, these bacteria are targeting the vacuoles all over the frontonia's cytoplasm. Some of the frontonia were so damaged by the infrection that it was hard to even recognize the organism. So what is infecting this frontonia? Well, we know it's a bacteria, and that bacteria is definitely holospora-like, but outside of that resemblance, we do not know."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Unsolved Mysteries of the Microcosmos

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

"The microcosmos is full of mysteries like this one, with red herrings and uncanny resemblances that create even more confusion. When you've spent as much time in this world as James, our master of microscopes has, the information you gather offers clues... but you may still have to wait to close the case. So today, we're going to talk about a few of those unsolved mysteries."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Unsolved Mysteries of the Microcosmos

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

"Though of course like many microbial taxonomy efforts, these labels would undergo massive changes in later eras of research. The third era that Corliss described lasted between 1950 and 1970, and this era would apply advanced techniques of those days to better the relationships between the roughly 6000 species known at the time. And of course, those relationships are still being revised and updated with new techniques of today."

Journey to the Microcosmos- The Schoolteacher Who Discovered 700 Ciliates

Journey to the Microcosmos- Unsolved Mysteries of the Microcosmos

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs

Frontonia mengi (via) (via)