COCCOLITHOPHORIDS
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SEM scans courtesy of Markus Geisen |
CRYSTAL CLARITY
These scanning electron microscope images of coccolithophorids were all taken by Markus Geisen of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany. Geisen is one of dozens of European scientists who recently completed an extensive investigation, called CODENET, of the biology and the ecological relationships of several coccolithophorid species. “These unbelievably small creatures create unbelievably elaborate crystals,” says Jeremy Young, a micropaleontologist at the Natural History Museum in London. “The more striking they are, the better is the evidence they have important biological functions.”
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DOUBLE PLATED
This coccolithophorid, an Algirosphaera robusta, was harvested from the Alborán Sea in the western Mediterranean. It has two tiers of armor: a petal-like arrangement of vertical plates overlying an interior layer of ribbed oval disks.The center area is where a tiny flagellum will grow, allowing it some mobility but not against a current. Despite its many parts, the entire organism is a single cell of only about 10 microns in diameter, which is smaller than most cells in the human body. To bring out specific structural features, the coloring was digitally added by biogeologist and electron microscopist Geisen, who captured this image in 2000.
