Mikro-dialoge

Monday, January 23, 2012

MKG# 14 English

This note is inspired from a phylogenetic workshop I had the chance to attend to a few years ago. I had the opportunity to listen to a few discussions and arguments between very famous protistologists...I was just starting a master thesis in Jan Pawlowski's lab and was thus quite a freshman in protistology, and that MKG is nore or less as clear as their discussions were for me... Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely deliberate! :-)

MKG#14 Deutsch

Thursday, November 24, 2011

What the hell is Ceratium Ranipes?

As not all readers are familiar with the fascinating diversity of microorganisms (my being the less familiar of them...), here's a short explanation of what this creature is.

Ceratium is a genus part of dinoflagellates, microscopic planktonic plants. Famous for them typical shape, they are found in freshwater and marine environments. They are mixotrophs. That means they indulge in both the pleasure of predation and light feeding. Their "arms" serve them to float but are rather awkard to swim. They are not toxic and that's rather pleasant for a dinoflagellate, as they are well-known for having a tendency to bloom and create red tides. If you want to know more about them, check out the links below!