Diatoms – SAR-Stramenopiles (Bacillariophyta)

Observations on Thalassiosira leptopus

Protisten / Protisten.de – created by Wolfgang Bettighofer / Bacillariophyta / Coscinodiscophyceae / Thalassiosirales / Thalassiosira leptopus

Position in the EOL taxonomic tree. Please click on the tree view below to access EOL (Encyclopedia of Life).

Thalassiosira leptopus (Grunow) Hasle & G.Fryxell 1977

Most likely ID: n.a.

Basionym: Coscinodiscus leptopus Grunow 1883

Add’l Synonyms: Coscinodiscus lineatus Ehrenberg 1839
                       Coscinodiscus pseudolineatus Pantocsek 1886
                       Coscinodiscus leptopus var. discrepans Rattray 1890
                       Coscinodiscus praelineatus Jousé 1968

Sampling date 12/2025. Scale bars indicate 50 µm (1, 3), 10 µm (2).

Three images.

First:	Synoptic representation of the valve and the floating appendages, which are made of chitin.
Second:	Enlarged image. The arrowhead indicates a labiate process (rimoporula), through which the cell can secrete gelatinous material (sulfated mucopolysaccharides) for attachment to a substrate; the arrow points to an occluded process. See the SEM images in the following section for details.
Third:	This second overview image shows the ring of occluded processes at the valve edge.

Please click on < or > on the image edges or on the dots at the bottom edge of the images to browse through the slides!

Place name: Baltic Sea, Kieler Förde, Kiel Fjord (Germany)
Latitude: 54.3894126 Longitude: 10.1749055 Elevation: 0 m

Microscope Zeiss Axioplan, camera Olympus OM-D M5 MKII. DOF images.

Sampling date 06/2025. Scale bars indicate 20 µm (1), 10 µm (2), 1 µm, (3), 2µm (4).

Four images.

First:	Complete valve, occluded processes and some of the fine chitin threads (remaining after preparation for observation in the SEM), which serve as floating appendages for the diatom.
Second:	Enlarged section of the previous image.
Third and fourth:	Further magnification. The arrows point to occluded processes that lost their tips during preparation; the double arrowheads point to openings of strutted processes (fultoportulae), from each of which a chitinous filament emerges in an intact cell. The emergence of a filament can be seen in the left part of Figure 4.

Please click on < or > on the image edges or on the dots at the bottom edge of the images to browse through the slides!

Place name: Baltic Sea, Kieler Förde, Kiel Fjord (Germany)
Latitude: 54.3894126 Longitude: 10.1749055 Elevation: 0 m

Tescan Clara SEM, © Wolfgang Bettighofer/Jürgen Stampfl

Sampling date 06/2025. Scale bars indicate 2 µm (1), 500 nm (2).

Two images.
At even higher magnification, it becomes apparent that the valve has a double-layered construction. Behind each hole is a fine sieve plate (cribrum).

Please click on < or > on the image edges or on the dots at the bottom edge of the images to browse through the slides!

Place name: Baltic Sea, Kieler Förde, Kiel Fjord (Germany)
Latitude: 54.3894126 Longitude: 10.1749055 Elevation: 0 m

Tescan Clara SEM, © Wolfgang Bettighofer/Jürgen Stampfl

Sampling date 04/2011. Scale bars indicate 25 µm.

Place name: North Sea around Heligoland
Latitude: 54.186311 Longitude: 7.895034

Microscope Zeiss Universal, camera Olympus C7070WZ. DOF image.

© Wolfgang Bettighofer,
images under Creative Commons License V 3.0 (CC BY-NC-SA).
For permission to use of (high resolution) images please contact postmaster@protisten.de.

Protisten.de

Observations on Thalassiosira leptopus

New items

New items