Pond Water Ciliate #2 Inquiry

This page is an on-line inquiry based on a streaming video of a freshwater ciliate collected from Loughborough Lake, near Kingston, Ontario, Canada. This organism is probably a species of Oxytricha.

There are two segmemts in this video: one at a lower power (over 40X magnification) and one at a higher power (over 100X magnification). The reason the magnifications are not exact is that the video camera that attaches to the microscopes magnifies the image it receives from the microscopes. There are also two different types of views where the lighting was changed from backlighting (from underneath the slide) to one where the lighting comes from above and the side of the slide.

Watch the videos, then try to answer the questions we've provided. As you examine the videos, come up with possible answers or come up with other questions, please share them with others through our Discussion Forum or Shout Box on the right side of this page.

Pond Water Ciliate #2 (Oxytricha?)

Recommendation: The clips in the videos contain some events that happen quickly. So, try pausing the video. Look at a frame at a time for more details.

There is an embedded movie viewer, below. However, if someone else is watching that video you may want access one of the other 4 streaming videos listed at the bottom of the page. If someone is already watching one video and you open that video, you end up watching his or her movie in progress and you'll be at the mercy of the other viewer. If this happens, close the movie and click on another from the list below. In addition, you can click on a downloadable version and view it from your own computer whenever you wish.

Scientists have used words and parts of words from Greek, Latin, and other languages to name organisms. Finding out the names for organisms is not really all that important for the kinds of investigations we do on this site or in our everyday lives. It may be more fun to make up your own descriptive names from words or parts of words you already know. However, it may be interesting to see how scientists have done this same thing using other languages.

Trich comes from the Greek word thrix, which means hair, wool, or bristle

Oxy comes from the Greek word oxys, which means sharp, keen

-a probably is a shortened form of –al, which means of, relating to, or characterized by

So, oxytricha means a critter characterized by sharp bristles.

Cili comes from the Latin meaning eyelid, eyelash

-a probably is a shortened form of –al, which means of, relating to, or characterized by

So, cilia means a object that is similar to eyelashes.

-ate

The suffix probably comes from the Greek –atus, which means possessive of or likeness of something.

So, when we put –ate at the end of a word, like ciliate, we get:

Ciliate = the possessor of eyelash-like structures.

Cirri comes from the Greek word, cirrus, which means tuft of hair. So, cirrus or cirri (plural) means a tuft of cilia.