Can you believe I found these freshwater golden dinoflagellates in a pond from a city park? 😳 They’re from the Ceratium species and I haven’t seen that many in a sample. ever. Soooooo I’m EXCITED AS HELL😱 there are tons of marine dinoflagellates but there are also some freshwater species 😄 As you can observe, these phytoplanktons possess a hard shell called the theca or lorica which is made of cellulose plates and extensions called horns, which are pretty pointy. This armour is divided in two by a horizontal groove called the cingulum. There’s also another small vertical groove crossing the cingulum which is called the sulcus. Each of these grooves are housing a flagellum which is used for locomotion during the motile stage of this eukaryotic unicellular algae. Ceratium tends to bloom during summer and can be responsible for bad smell and taste of drinking water. They usually grow steadily during March and April and then their number explodes during June and July with exponential growth. Bad news for blooms but great news for me because WOWOWOWOW When in their motile stage, Dinoflagellates assimilate nutrients by photosynthesis. To be able to produce nutrients for themselves, they possess chlorophyll a and c2 as photosynthetic pigments. They also possess a peridinin carotenoid pigment which is responsible for their beautiful and rich golden colour! 😄 Video taken with my iPhone mounted on my brand new BA310E Motic microscope with an @ilabcam ultra adapter 🔬 Reference: Carty, S. (2003). DINOFLAGELLATES. Freshwater Algae of North America, 685–714. . #microscope #Science #biology #fyp #life #nature - @tardibabe