Sunday, January 18, 2009

ZE BIBLIOGRAPHY (mostly just pictuer searches i did on google =D )

http://www.pinkmonkey.com/studyguides/subjects/biology-edited/chap14/14_13.gif
http://www.slideshare.net/mrskennedy/protist-notes
http://www.coleharbourhigh.ednet.ns.ca/library/images/bio11m21.gif
http://www.coleharbourhigh.ednet.ns.ca/library/images/bio11m22.jpg
http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~eeob/new/webgallery3/images/amoeba.jpg
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/imgdec02/paramecium.jpg
http://nyms.org/Gallery/diatoms.jpg
http://www.gpmatthews.nildram.co.uk/microplants/spyrogyra002.jpg
http://www.designswan.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/slime_mold/slime_mold2.jpg
http://www.biology.neu.edu/images/redalgae.jpg
http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/1439011/2/istockphoto_1439011_brown_algae_seaweed_specimen.jpg
http://128.128.175.244/fedora/get/data:26015/LocalImage
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/wimsmall/smal1.html
http://www.pclaunches.com/entry_images/0207/26/bacteria-dna.jpg
http://nanopedia.case.edu/image/water%20flea.jpg
http://campus.queens.edu/faculty/jannr/images/critters/ostracods.jpg
http://hudsonregional.org/mosquito/images/copepod.jpg
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/smallimag/cosci3.jpg
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/index.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/ponddip/index.html
http://www.planet-pets.com/amoeba1.jpg
http://192.171.153.213/sci_programmes/Water/Lake%20Ecosystems/images/clip_image002.jpg
http://www.urbanrivers.org/web_images/diatoms.gif
http://www.mediterranea.org/cae/divulgac/peces/hydra.jpg
http://starcentral.mbl.edu/msr/rawdata/viewable/euglenatripteris_wbw.jpg
http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/Interface/web-lessons/Diversity/Chlorophyta/images/Spirogyra.jpg
http://www.gpmatthews.nildram.co.uk/animalcules/cypris02.jpg
http://www.lima.ohio-state.edu/biology/images/volvox.jpg
http://www.btinternet.com/~stephen.durr/volvoxc.jpg
http://water.me.vccs.edu/courses/ENV108/clipart/rotifer.jpg
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/phyla/rotifera/philodina.jpg
http://www.hometrainingtools.com/images/942/250x225/ms-desmid.jpg?1227081449
http://microscopy.fsu.edu/primer/techniques/hoffmangallery/images/stentor.jpg
http://www.susq-town.org/hamsher/004%20Structure%20of%20a%20paramecium.jpg
http://www.wasdarwinright.com/images/Vorticellafeeds.jpg

Actinosphaerium (single-celled)

Their size ranges form 200 - 1000 µm

Where to find them : Planktonic and amongst plants (especially fine-leaved).

They have hair-like pseudopodia called axopodia (which are often stiffened) that radiate outwards. There are a number of smaller species e.g. in the genera Actinophrys and Acanthocystis.

Classification :Kingdom - Protoctista, Class - Heliozoa

** These remind me of dandilions for some reason.**

Vorticella (single-celled)

Vorticella
The 'bell' is up to 150 µm, with stalk up to 1 mm.
You can find them attached to algae and plants etc.

Vorticella are one of the peritrich protozoa. Although solitary, they often occur in groups to form a tiny jelly-like mass just visible to the naked eye. Their stalks contract like a spring (they remind me of a slinky). Some similar types e.g. Epistylis (not contractile) and Carchesium (contractile) are true colonies with branching tree-like stalks.

Classification : Kingdom Protoctista, Phylum Ciliophora

Paramecium (single-celled)


Their size range is between 60 - 300 µm.
You can find them amongst organic matter and Plankton.
They are one of the larger single-celled pond animals. Many protozoa are very small, but the larger Paramecium can just be seen as a speck swimming in pond water.
Classification :Kingdom Protoctista, Phylum Ciliophora

Stentor (single-celled)

They can grow up to 2 - 3 mm long.


You can find these dandy creatures attached to plants/algae and planktonic.

They are one of the largest freshwater protozoans and larger than some multi-celled pond animals. When it is attached to a surface, it adopts the trumpet shape shown and the ring of cilia around the trumpet rim draw in water, together with the smaller organisms on which the Stentor feed. When the Stentor swims it changes to an oval shape.

The Stentor is often green in colour because of the algae (single-celled plants) associated with it. Like other large single celled creatures (e.g. amoebas) they have many nuclei. In Stentor you can see the nuclei as a 'string of pearls'. The large sphere is a water expelling vesicle. The cell is covered with tiny hair-like 'cilia'.

Classification :Kingdom Protoctista, Phylum Ciliophora

Desmid (single-celled)

Desmids

Their Size varies greatly amongst speciesca 10 µm - 1 mm.

Where to find them : Planktonic, or on vegetation, particularly neutral to acidic waters.

They are an attractive and varied group of algae. And although the species vary widely in shape, they share the feature of being divided into two equal halves (semicells) which are often mirror images. A distinct constriction between the two semicells or gap in the plastids is usually seen.

Classification :Kingdom - Protoctista, Phylum - Gamophyta

** They look like little leeches to me.. GROSS!**

Rotifers (multicellular)

Philodina
Rotifers


there is a wide range amongst species size but around 25 µm - 1 mm.

Some species are planktonic, others are attached to plants, other organisms, stones or creeping on plants, mud surface etc.

Older books call them wheel animalcules. The head has a crown of cilia (the 'wheel organ'), which in some species looks as if it is rotating like a wheel.
Rotifer species show a wonderful variety of forms. Some move and contract like a leech (e.g. Philodina), others build 'houses'.
Classification :Kingdom - Animalia, Phylum - Rotifera

Volvox (single-celled, but colonial)

Volvox
Volvox
It Colonies up to 1 mm

They are Planktonic in still and flowing waters.

Volvox is a spherical colony of hundreds of green algal cells each with two whip-like flagella. These cells are distributed on the surface of a hollow jelly-like globe. Sometimes the colony may contain smaller colonies. Volvox has features of both algae and protozoa, and is classified by some authorities as a green algae (Chlorophyta) and by others in the protozoan order Volvocida.
Classification :Kingdom - Protoctista, Phylum - Chlorophyta

Cypris (multicellular)

Cypris
Their size ranges from 0.5 - 3 mm.
You can find these creatures amongst aquatic vegetation and browsing the surface layers of bottom mud.

The body of an ostracod, including its head, is guarded by a bean-shaped shell (the carapace). Some of the smaller rounded water fleas (e.g. Chydorus) may be confused for an ostracod, but the shell of a water flea is usually much more transparent.
The ostracods, although quite easy to recognise, are often hard to identify further, because externally they all look rather alike!

Classification :Kingdom - Animalia, Phylum - Crustacea, Class - Ostracoda

Amoeba (single-celled)

An Ameoba!!
Their size is normally 20 - 1200 µm

You can find these intersting creatures decaying organic matter e.g. on leaves and surface of bottom mud.

Although usually common, they're not always abundant, so casual pond dipping may not find them. Theie finger-like protusions (pseudopodia) are used for movement and feeding.
There are also testate amoeba which live in shells (tests) and also naked ameobas. Squeezings from Sphagnum moss may often contain examples of testate amoeba.

Classification :Kingdom Protoctista, Phylum Rhizopoda

Daphnia (multicellular)

Daphina
Their average size is 0.5 - 4 mm.


You can find this amazing creature amongst plants, organic matter, or Planktonic etc.

The beating heart, compound eye and moving limbs can all be seen as they have a transparent shell. A common water flea Simocephalus is larger. Chydorus, is another common one, but smaller and more globular, and often found amongst weeds.
Water fleas are very simple to find in a jar of pond water because of the jerky movements of their second antennae . Hence their common name, although they are not fleas.
The females often carry live young, which is really kool to watch.


Classification : Kingdom - Animalia, Phylum - Crustacea, Order - Cladocera

Cyclops (multicellular)

their size is usually 0.25 - 3 mm.

You can find them amongst plants,organic matter, Planktonic etc.

The cyclops is one of the easiest creature to see and identify with a naked eye (pond creature that is..). The female often carries a pair of egg sacs and is a very fast and agile swimmer! t only has one eye and therefore it was named after the Greek mythological creature.
They are usually a drab green or brown but can be quite brightly coloured. Another common copepod Diaptomus has one egg sac, longer antennae, and long thin body.

Classification :Kingdom - Animalia, Phylum - Crustacea, Class - Copepoda

Diatoms (single-celled)

Diatoms.
Their size is a wide range amongst species ca 5 - 500 µm

You can find them attached to plants, or plantonic. They often form brown crusts on surfaces under water (example: stones, plant stems).

Diatoms have silica shells in two halves that fit together. The shell (the frustule) often has very fine structure (which is best seen in commercially prepared slides of diatoms).

Classification :Kingdom - Protoctista, Phylum - Diatoms (Bacillariophyta)

Hydra (mlticellular)


Hydra are 4-30mm long including there tenticles.

You can find these cool creatures attached to surfaces like water plant stems and on the undersides of floating leaves.

The hydra can reproduce asexually by budding. the tenticles have stinging cells which they use to capture prey like small water fleas.

Classification: Kingdom- Animalia, Phylum- Cnidaria, Class- Hydrozoa

Euglena

Euglena
Planktonic, ofen colouring the water green.

Euglena like some other micro-organisms, have features both of an algae (ex: Green, photosynthesis) and Protozoa (moves whip-like flagella). It also had a red eye spot.

You may see this when oberving a larger organism under the microscope.

Classification: Kingdom- Protoctista, Phylum- Discomitochondria.

Spirogyra (single-celled) .... (STICKS)


(These are both examples of Spirogyra)

These amazing creatures are normally are around 10-100 filaments wide.

They are the floating green masses that are slimy to touch.

The single cells are arraned end to end and form long threads (filaments). The spirally arranged ribbonlike plastids aredistinctive. They are normally used as an example of filementous algae in texts.

Classification: Kingdom- Protoctista, Phylum- Gamophyta

Monday, January 12, 2009

Diatoms

Pennates

These are unicellular organisms that have a yellow-brown chloroplast that enables them to photosynthesize. thier cell walls are made of silica.

There are 2 different groups:

1) Pennates- pen shaped
2) Centric- which are like a cylinder

At the end of the winter they are most numerous in fresh water.

The attack of the crusties.

Copepods

Ostracods
Water Fleas





Crustaceans in fresh water.
3 major groups...in your POND water!


1) The water fleas
2) The ostracods
3) The copepods

The water fleas are most familiar and they are the most numerous organisms in freshwater zooplankton. you can see the large ones with the naked eye.

Ostracods shell is even more protective then that of the water fleas. they can shut the two halves completely and withdraw themselves in it. they also fossilize well.

Copepods body does not have a shell like appearance but it is more slender and segmented. There are more in the ocean than in fresh water. and are often considered the most numerous animals in the planet and are a major food source for fish and even whales.

CRUSTIES....(crustaceans)

They are a group of animals that is best known for the crabs and lobsters. they have many microscopic relatives.the insects belong in a large group of anthropods that have segmented limbs with a hardened external skeleton made of chitin.

Ciliates (hairy stuff) =)


What are they??

ciliates are unicellular protists that can be recognised by thier hairlike ``cilia``

they are used for movingand feeding.


food vacuoles are used to transport the food through the cell.


WHY?

When you are so small the water acts as a thick syrup so swimming like a fish wouldnt be effiecient. if you want to swim fast with manouverability you need cilia, tiny hairs acting like paddles. most ciliates are amazing swimmers and some are so fast that they are hardly visible when observed.


Myonemes: fibers that act like muscles.


FLAGELLATED PROTOZOA (IT HAS A TAIL or PROPELLER)

flagella
CrAzY fAcT:

PROTOZOA is used for the more animal-like celled organisms like amoebas and cillates.

ALGAE is used for the moreplant-like organisms


a flagellum is a whip-like structure used for locomotion, for feeding or other purposes. almost all organisms have flagella (at oen stage or another..).


coooolness- WE HUMANS HAVE THEM IN OUR BODIES!


a cilium beats like a small pedal and generates a sideways motion


Dinoflagellates are flagellated protists.

Bacteria taking over the world!


THE MOST ANCIENT FORM OF LIFE.

Random fact: Most are so small, that they show up as dots under a light microscope!

They live in our ponds and will eat us alive if we stay in the pond too long.. (just kidding)

Saturday, January 10, 2009

ALGAE- (GROSS!) but fascinating..

(Green Algae)

(Brown Algae)

(Red Algae)


ALGAE!

Protists or plants???

there are 3 types:
  1. Red Algae


  2. Brown Algae


  3. Green Algae

-Many scientists place them in the plant kingdom...

Fun guys (fungus like protists) =]

(Slime mold)

  • They Contain parasitic and predatory molds that produce spores

  • Most are single-celled, decomposers in aquatic habitats

  • Phagocytic slime molds live as singla amoeboid cells or aggregations of cells that migrate together and form spre producing structures.



  • Acellular slime molds- help scientists sudy movement of protoplasm, form plasmodia at one point in life cycle

  • Cellular slime molds- help scientists study how cells communicate, function, like a single, multicelled organism as one point in thier life cycle.


Random comment- mushrooms. i like them raw but i do not life them cooked. To me, they feel wierd when I chew them.

Plant- Like Protists


(Spyrogyra)


(Diatoms)


  • Single celled


  • Photosynthetic


  • some are flagellated, luminescent


  • May live freely or as colonies


  • Phytoplankton- primary producers of oxygen




Euglenophyta- Euglena (autophic and heterotrophic)





Pyrrophyta- Dinoflagellates (luminescent, produce toxins that shellfish absorb-



dangerous= RED TIDE)



Chrysophyta- Diatoms, important component of marine plankton- food source for marine animals, silicon cell walls important component of detegents, polishes, and paint removers.


Random question- do these live in pools??







Radiolarian

Radiolarian

Paramecium

Paramecium

an ameoba







An Ameoba

Animal--like protists aka "PrOtOzOaNs"....(Crazy I know!)


(an ameba)






















(animal like protistas)
  • Unicellular AND colonial


  • Eukaryotic


  • Heterophic
Endosym bionthHypothesis

- First Eukaryotic cell was formed by a symbiosis

among several prokaryotes which lost the ability to live alone.


random comment: this is prettty kool =]

Animal-like Protists



a) Ciliates: Motile, cilia, free living.

EX: Paramecium (reproduction by binary fission, conjugation)


b) Flagellates: motile, flBoldagella,reproduce asexually by binary fission and sexually.

EX: Trypanosoma- causes African sleeping sickness

EX: Trichonympha- live in termites, help digest food


c) Sporozoans: non-motile, parasitic, reproduce by spores.
EX: Plasmodium- causes malaria


d) Sarcodina: "false feet" pseudopods

EX: Ameba- some cause amebic dysentary



**Disease- infection caused by many of these**

AMAZING PROTISTS

How to classify protists:

  • Free- living
  • Eukaryotic
  • unicellular, colonial forms

Types? there are 3

  • Animal like
  • Plant like
  • and last but not least Fungus like

hint: they are most easily classified by what they are nOt - not animals, not plants, not fungi