2006Botanical Garden in Aobayama V

Soils from the L, H, and A layers were sampled from the Tohoku University Botanical Garden in Sendai. This is a video of an organism taken from the H layer, which is below the L layer. There are fairly decomposed organic debris and humic substances in this layer. At first organisms could not be found in the newly collected soil, so the samples (including water) were left for one month and then observed.

Commentary by Prof. Yuji Tsukii, Hosei University
It is difficult to identify this small ciliate because neither the shape of the cell body nor the cytostome (mouth) are clear enough. We can see a mouth at the front and a contracting vacuole at the rear end.The mouth is split deeply, which resembles that of Cyrtolophosis or Protocruzia.

http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp/PDB/Im.....

http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp/PDB/Im.....

However, the cell shape of Cyrtolophosis looks almost like a cigarette, and it does not bend or twist frequently as the ciliate in this video does. This ciliate lacks the long frontal cilia that are characteristic of Cytrolophosis.

Similar to Cytrolophnsis, Protocruzia has an elongated oval shape and does not bend or twist frequently like the organism in the video.

Sampling Date : 06 December 2006

Sampling Site : Tohoku University Botanical Garden in Aobayama  Google Map