Blepharisma Americana (#Sciencepic)

in #sciencepic7 years ago

IMG-20170712-WA0039.jpg

The little red organism you can see in the right part of the picture is a protist called Blepharisma Americana. They live in fresh water and are about 200- 800 µm big.
With a microscope, you can easily spot the organelles this single cell organism possesses.

Blepharisma Americana can reproduce sexually and asexually. They also feed on smaller organisms and sometimes even cannibalize each other.

Because of their vibrant color and the easy way they can be held in cultures, Blepharisma Americana are often used for research or as demonstration organisms.

IMG-20170712-WA0041.jpg



#sciencepic is an initiative to bring more scientific knowledge to steemit and to promote the @steemstem project.
Read more about it here.
Picture was taken by me

Sort:  

Cool. A microscope and a camera. I don't see that much anywhere in social media. That a nice departure from the trodden path.

If you liked this, you should check out the other posts in #sciencepic ! Many people have taken photographs of many exciting things.

Can they go into people too? Are they in Asia too? Scary.
But educational too. Thanks.

They are comparably harmless. I don't know of an incident where they were harmful to humans.

Thats an interesting creature. What is it characterized as though? Is it bacteria? Algae?

A ciliate protist! Bacteria don't have organelles and algae have chlorophyll.

Looks like a amoeba

Contrary to amoeba, blepharisma americana have a static body shape. Amoeba can change their shape and are almost fluid in their movements.