Observations on 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.
New items
New items
cornuta
crenulata
ubiquetum
basiornatum
pinnatifida
elegantissimiforme
antilopaeum
laeve
caelatum
decedens