I Found Another Specimen Of A Super Rare Organism Yesterday!

I Found Another Specimen Of A Super Rare Organism Yesterday!

i found another specimen of a super rare organism yesterday!

this is a rare and remarkable ciliate, a single-celled organism called Metopus verrucosus.

a few neat facts about it:

it’s an anaerobic organism! this means it prefers to live without oxygen

it lives deep in the mud of sulfur- & methane-rich bodies of saltwater. this one was found in the salt marsh estuary on the side of the garden state pkwy in south New Jersey!

it couldn’t survive in these noxious conditions by itself, though! the fuzzyness covering it’s cell is actually a type of bacteria that symbiotically lives on M. verrucosus.

this bacteria has the ability to metabolize sulfur and/or methane, processing these volatile stinky chemicals and turning it into energy, that it then shares with M. verrucosus!

i’m the only known person with this kind of footage of M. verrucosus! the paper The Santa Barbara Basin is an Oasis of Symbiosis has the only other photo i’ve seen of this organism, and it’s actually an HVEM (electron microscope) photo of a cross-section of the cell showing it’s endosymbiotic bacteria.

I Found Another Specimen Of A Super Rare Organism Yesterday!
I Found Another Specimen Of A Super Rare Organism Yesterday!

here are some more photos i took of other specimens:

M. verrucosus dividing (asexually reproducing)
I Found Another Specimen Of A Super Rare Organism Yesterday!
labelled drawing i did of it! transcription: b.) ectosymbiotic bacteria ~ ci.) elongated cilia (hair-like structures used for locomotion) ~ co.) contractile vacuole (kinda the ciliate equivalent to lungs) ~ ma.) macronuclei (where the DNA is stored) ~ o.) oral groove? (where i think the mouth-like opening is?) ~ the scale bar is 20 μm
Metopus verrucosus; observed on 6/22/22 in a salt marsh sample; on the side of the garden state parkway, south of ocean city, NJ. sample collected 3/20/22, and the sample sat shut tight on my desk for maybe a month, exposed to my aquarium light. it popped open w/ considerable effort, releasing a methane gas mixture w/ a hiss. the smell lingered for a good 30 minutes & dmi (my partner) asks; "...did you just fart?" ~ identified on inaturalist by bdstaylor, who described it as a "slenderly fusiform ciliate, with AZM (?), slightly twisted in the anterior, CV (contractile vacuole) in posterior, pellicle ornamented with "warts". if this is M. verrucosus, as i think, it is something fairly rare. i'm not sure there are any microphotographs of it (& not to many drawings, either!)
Metopus verrucosus is a rare & uncommon ciliate! it lives in marine habitats, characteristically in Beggiatoa (filamentous sulfur reducing bacteria) high-sulfide environments; oxygen-poor environments; it's anaerobic! ~ dimensions & appearance: 100-140 μm long, ~20 μm at it's widest. "fusiform" (spindle-shaped), elongate & thin, wider & twisted anterior (front). long cilia, especially on anterior. organelles: 3 macronuclei, seemingly no micronuclei, posterior contractile vacuole. ⟡ special feature ⟡ ectobiotic tufts of bacteria, from its macronuclei to behind the oral groove. most likely symbiotic -- M. verrucosus lives in sulphidic sediments. in order to survive such conditions, it seems to have formed an ectosymbiotic relationship with an unknown, possibly sulfide-reducing and/or methanogenix bacilliform bacteria, which adorn its pellicle (surface) in tidy tufts.

More Posts from P-atyk and Others

1 month ago

i’m like if a writer did not write and did other things instead

1 month ago

Two animals people need to shut the fuck up about and be normal are pandas and dolphins

1 month ago

"but the drugs"

"but it gets tampered"

and what?

with every fucking reason possible, I've never seen things like that locked up in my country

locking up products in general is not even a thing here

I live in the city where people actually give you drugs for free and there's been a murder like,, yesterday? it happens at lleast few times a year

all stuff like that, real filth on the streets and still the only things locked up I sometimes see at the stores are the super super expensive/fragile stuff (such as art, multimedia etc.) and the displays at the pharmacies which could make sense (someone could do a fuck up and end up worse than before, also it's always some unnecessary expensive shit like "a shampoo that cures male loneliness and makes your dick shaped like a chevrolet camaro '76")

btw yeah guess what we got ~*♡healthcare♡*~ and even if it's not perfect, if you have no money you can just go to the hospital, ask for specific things you may need, say that you have no money for it and they will just give it to you

again, there's no reason to lock up products such as this other than profit

p-atyk - soggy wenis
1 month ago
p-atyk - soggy wenis
6 days ago

just dont watch that shit

it really is that fucking easy

p-atyk - soggy wenis
2 years ago
Honestly

Honestly

2 years ago
p-atyk - soggy wenis
p-atyk - soggy wenis
p-atyk - soggy wenis
p-atyk - soggy wenis
p-atyk - soggy wenis
p-atyk - soggy wenis
p-atyk - soggy wenis
p-atyk - soggy wenis
p-atyk - soggy wenis
p-atyk - soggy wenis
2 years ago

I tought that game died years ago

Ok so I debated all of 2 seconds on if i should post this here or make a new blog for this kinda content but its _fine_ , anyways

Ok So I Debated All Of 2 Seconds On If I Should Post This Here Or Make A New Blog For This Kinda Content

Behold

5 months ago
Wolves may be pollinators as well as predators, study suggests | CNN
CNN
The endangered Ethiopian wolf has been observed licking the flowers of red hot poker plants, and now scientists believe it may play a role i

Pollinators come in a variety of forms. While people tend to be most familiar with bees and butterflies, there are numerous other animals from beetles to birds to bats--and now wolves--that also facilitate the pollination of various plants.

This, to me, just illustrates yet again why the removal of even one native species from the ecosystem it evolved in can have wide-ranging repercussions. While we are continuing to learn all sorts of amazing ways that species depend on each other, we've barely scratched the surface of what there is to know.

At a time when extinction is accelerating due to factors ranging from habitat loss and fragmentation to invasive species to the ever-expanding effects of anthropogenic climate change, it is even more crucial that we protect all extant species, even those that are not as charismatic or high-profile. When we lose a species forever, the ecosystem loses all the benefits that species provided--and we lose the opportunity to learn about those complex relationships.

While those responsible for the greatest amount of damage are largely concerned with next quarter's profits and what they can milk out of "natural resources" before they disappear, those of us intimately acquainted with the workings of the natural world know that there is much more value to all of us in preserving and restoring as much of our planet's natural systems as possible, not merely for abstract understanding of natural history, but the ongoing maintenance of every living being's life support system.

5 months ago

Okay, who is pole dancing in my Tolypothrix?!

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p-atyk - soggy wenis
soggy wenis

will make drama for cash

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