This unusual single-celled organism, called Vorticella, lives amongst the algae that line the inside my water butt, that collects rainwater from the garage roof. Each individual resembles a bell attached to a patch of algae via a long stalk. It feeds using a ring of beating hairs around the edge of the ‘bell’, creating a water current that sweeps in minute algae. All those green blobs inside are algae that it has trapped. Vorticella reacts to the slightest disturbance in a remarkable way, by coiling its stalk like a spring so that it shrinks back out of sight. The short video clip shows this behaviour quite nicely. Each Vorticella is about a fifth of a millimetre long, at full stretch. You can read more about Vorticella at http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/indexmag.html?http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/artjun03/wdvorticella.html
Fascinating, it's almost like being a voyeur, intruding on something normally so secret.
ReplyDeletePut four of these things in a line attached to some sort of micro-crank and you've got the first Vorticella piston engine.
ReplyDeleteIt sometimes feels like that when you're watching them down the microscope, Toffeeapple. They all seem so busy and purposeful.........
ReplyDeleteFunny your should mention that, Rob; I've had a few cars that felt like they had Vorticellid engines.....
ReplyDeleteReally nice learn about this kind of single cell organism
ReplyDeleteAmarjit Singh Kullar
It is nice to learn about this single cell organism
ReplyDeleteAmarjit Singh Kullar
Thanks for visiting Amarjit, I've always found these lowly forms of life fascinating. Other larger, more complex organisms and appeared and become extinct during the course of millions of years, but these have survived since the earliest stages of evolution..... If we were to measure evolutionary success in terms of durability, then these would be winners!
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