Mystery Pond Water Organisms by the Fun-Gis
Group Members: Tyler, Teka, Kevin, Lana
1). Organism 1: Arcellinida (Shelled Amoeba)
A-C. Taxonomy:
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Protozoa
Phylum: Amoebozoa
Order: Arcellinida
Family: N/A
Genus: N/A
D. Defining characteristics of organism
- Partially enclosed by a shell
- Pseudopodia (false feet) sticking out from the shell
E. References used:
Handout - Guide to Freshwater Organisms
http://tolweb.org/Arcellinida/124471
F. General Comments/Observations:
Arcellinida are characterized by their soft shell and pseudopodia. They resemble crustaceans like crayfish and use their 'feet' in similar ways. Arcellinida feet are not really feet but cells that they can extend out of their body. They use these feet to move food in to eat.
2) Organism 2: Flatworm
A-C. Taxonomy:
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Platyhelminthes
Order: N/A
Family: N/A
Genus: N/A
D. Defining characteristics of organism
- Bilateral
- Multicellular
- Eye spots
E. References used:
Handout - Guide to Freshwater Organisms
F. General Comments/Observations:
This little guy is definitely a flatworm, but what type exactly is something we can't say. The first (and only) flatworm that comes to mind is the planaria, which most of us looked at in 212. However, this guy lacks the arrow shaped head of planaria.
3) Organism 3: Spirogyra
A-C. Taxonomy:
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Chlorophyta
Order: Zygnematales
Family: Zygnemataceae
Genus: Spirogyra
D. Defining characteristics of organism
- Filamentous
- Spiral chloroplasts
E. References used:
Handout - Guide to Freshwater Organisms
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirogyra
F. General Comments/Observations:
Spirogyra and other filamentous algae were by far the most common organism on our slides considering the fact that there are over 400+ species of Spirogyra around. This is why they deserve two pictures, and also because their spiral chloroplasts look amazing.
4) Organism 4: Euglena
A-C. Taxonomy:
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Protista
Phylum: Eunglenozoa
Order: Euglenales
Family: Euglenacea
Genus: Euglena
D. Defining characteristics of organism
- Red eye spot
- Green color of chloroplasts
- Small hole in the middle is seen in other euglenas (hard to see in photo)
E. References used:
Handout - Guide to Freshwater Organisms
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euglena
F. General Comments/Observations:
These were relatively slow moving organisms. The eye spots in the picture might not be very clear, but they were unmistakably red in the microscope. This is a characteristic of Euglenas and this trait plus its size is how we identified the organism. They are also suppose to have flagellum but our picture did not capture this. Fun(?) fact: Euglenas can feed by both autotrophy (with chloroplasts) or heterotrophically via phagocytosis.
Closing Comment:
Trying to identify organisms in in the pond water was a tedious task which speaks volume about abundance of microorganism species. The amount we couldn't name were many times more than the organisms we could name. This lab gave us a look into a world we don't normally think about on a daily basis. To think that there are so many living organisms in just a few drops of pond water is pretty astounding. But, most of all, this lab taught me that I should really not drink pond water.
Hi Fun-Gis!
ReplyDeleteExcellent photos of the organisms found. Our sample slides mostly contained filamentous and other algae like yours. My pond sample slide had a worm but like your group, we had difficulties in identifying it. Now that I have seen what's in pond water, I agree that no one should drink pond water.
Fun-Gis -
ReplyDeleteI thought the diversity you found in your pond water was very interesting! Like our group, you found Spirogyra; this made me think that Spirogyra must be very abundant in pond water. However, this is the first pond water sample where I saw a flatworm. I thought it was interesting in all of the pond water samples, of how many things are in the water. The water is very concentrated with different organisms and algae. This made me realize why it is always such a bad idea drink water without filtering it. The high density of organisms and things other than pure water can be seen clearly when the pond water was looked at under a microscope. I also liked the picture of the live Spirogyra that you have in your post. The chloroplast can be seen very clearly, and I thought that was really cool in comparison to the dead ones.
Great Post!
Hi Fun-Gis, I think your pictures are stretched like that because it has to do with something about how Google Docs crops their images and how it transfers to other platforms. The same thing happened to our group and I was able to fix it by changing the size of the picture on the blogger after copying and pasting the picture from Google Docs. I'm intrigued about the color of the spirogyra that was found in your pond water. For my group, we only found colorless spirogyra and it's weird that your spirogyra appeared brownish. Trying to identify organisms in this lab was hard because we can clearly see the insane amounts of organisms swimming in the pond water, but our knowledge of the organisms are so little that we can only identify the "easiest" ones.
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