portrait

Description:

This cell was encountered around the margins of the alkaline Mono Lake. Paramecium is not known to occur in extreme habitats, but as the marginal regions of the pond receive run-off from the adjacent land, we may presume that it lived in a less extreme micro-habitat. It does, however, seem to be eating Picocystis - a common picophytoplankton organism in Mono Lake. Some extrusomes have been expelled from the central region of the cell. Phase contrast micrograph.