Days and Nights at the Museum

Sometimes we don't realize just how much life is out there that we never even see. Fortunately, through the technology of microscopes, and the power of the Internet, we're able to explore these worlds in ways we never have before.

Here's a video introduction to the protists.

This one is Protists gone wild

This beautiful video shows the movement of organelles inside an amoeba, and this one shows an amoeba eating algae. In this video of euglena, you can clearly see the flagella they use for moving around. Check out their size compared to paramecia. Stylonichia are cilliated like paramecia, but have ventral walking cillia, almost like legs.

On the microscopic carnage front, we have vorticella feeding (check out the food vacuoles, and the beating cillia drawing food into its mouth), stentor eating euglena, a hydra eating a daphnia, and another hydra grabbing a second daphnia.

Finally, in the midst of all this carnage, there is love. Paramecia conjugate, but they can also divide, and move around pretty well, too.

Get out there and take a close look next time you stop by your local pond. You just might be surprised how much life is in there.