#paraspathidium

"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

"Ciliate mouths can tell you a lot about what group they belong to, but it's hard to make out the shape of the mouth when you've got an organism spinning around, so James slowed it down by supporting the weight of the coverslip with petroleum jelly and then pressing down very, very slowly, very, very carefully until the organism was safely immobilized. From there, James and his mentor were able to document the shape of the cell's mouth and nucleus, along with a lot of other tiny details that helped them finally identify the cilaite as Paraspathidium. So great, mystery solved, right? Yeah, of course not."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Unsolved Mysteries of the Microcosmos

"Like this ciliate spinning around. It looks kind of like a transparent gourd that got dip-dyed in a light yellow paint. James found it in one of his marine tanks that he stocks with samples gathered from the beach. When he saw it, he couldn't figure out what the heck it was, so he went to his mentor, and she didn't know either. But you don't get to be a protistologist by giving up easily, so they looked everywhere to figure out the identity of their mysterious ciliate. One place to start? The mouth."

Journey to the Microcosmos- Unsolved Mysteries of the Microcosmos

Images Originally Captured by Jam's Germs