Skip to main content

Testate amoeba in a sea of bacteria

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American



On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.


Here is a filose(="thin-footed) amoeba from nearby decaying leaf litter. Most likely a species of Lecythium, but these amoebae are so poorly studied it's hard to establish what's what (nor has there been hardly any molecular work done to figure out where they fit, but probably somewhere in Cercozoa (in supergroup Rhizaria), near filose scale-plated Euglyphids and other squishy-stringy (and squishy-flagellated) critters. Their pseudopods are fairly dynamic and fun to watch! The well-defined bits and pieces on the slide (rods, mainly) are individual bacteria, which you can actually make out via light microscopy! (just generally not much of their internal structure). I think this image gives a bit of an "amoeba's eye" glimpse of the surface the amoeba lives on, but also shows a bit of bacterial morphological diversity -- while nowhere near as dramatic (or informative) as their genetic and metabolic capabilities, the shapes and structure of their cells can still vary considerably and be complex. Too often, the individual organism is forgotten in today's microbiology talk, reduced to liquid media and sequences of letters; but even if the individual cells themselves are hard to work with using current tools, I think it's important to not lose sight of the fundamental, membrane-bound unit of life. (100x objective, DIC; scalebar is 10um)

How many different types of bacteria do you think you can see here? Just for fun -- of course one can't identify such small microorganisms particularly well using morphology!

About Psi Wavefunction

I first encountered the wonders of the protist realm back in childhood, when a murky droplet of pond scum was revealed by the microscope to entail an alien world in its own right. It took another decade to discover there was a field and a community dedicated to these organisms, and I bade farewell to the study of more familiar big things. As a kid I was also fascinated by tales of exploration of the New World, as well as those of fantasy worlds. I was then sad that the age of surveying new landmasses on earth was over, and that human extraterrestrial adventures are unlikely to happen within our lifetimes. It seemed everything was discovered already. But that could hardly be further from the truth -- all that is necessary to begin one's own Age of Exploration is a new approach or perspective, and a healthy does of imagination. Since reality has conjured far more than the human mind alone ever could, science yields a way to write stories much wilder than fiction. All one needs to access the alien world of microbes around (and inside) them is a shift of scale by simple glass sphere.
I'm currently finishing up my undergraduate degree in Vancouver and in transition career-wise, hopefully to end up in graduate school soon. I was born in Russia (and speak the language) and spent most of my life in US and Canada. In addition to protists, I'm fascinated by evolution, including that of culture and languages, diversity and biology of cells and how they self-organise, linguistics and anthropology, particularly of the less talked-about cultures, sociology of science and plenty of totally random things that snag my attention.
Banner image was kindly post-processed and enhanced by my friend: an accomplished comic artist who goes by Achiru.

More by Psi Wavefunction