Found in an open strew of material from Oamaru. It was completely buried in other silica rubbish. I pulled it out and gave it a boil in detergent to get all the dust off it, then mounted it in zrax. First time I've ever cleaned one diatom at a time! :)
Focus stack shot with a 40x/0.75 objective.
Georgous detail, good balance. Nice one, Steve!
René
Wow, nicely done.
Best, Maarten
Perfectly cleaned and shown to us in high resolution.
Thank you for that. I am thrilled.
Which cleaning agent did you use?
Greetings from Siegfried
Hello,
Very nicely cleaned diatom, I have cleaned individual shells several times. I used the small 3 cm Petri dishes for this. Works quite well!
Greeting
Michael
Zitat von: Siegfried in Dezember 02, 2023, 08:37:04 VORMITTAGPerfectly cleaned and shown to us in high resolution.
Thank you for that. I am thrilled.
Which cleaning agent did you use?
Greetings from Siegfried
Thank you Seigried, and thanks everyone else for your comments too.
The material was cleaned in boiling H2SO4 several years ago so I only needed to remove stuck-on silica. I got 90% off with a needle on a micromanipulator but worried I'd push the remaining silica dust into the pores. It was very fine. So I transferred the frustule to a test tube and boiled it for 15 minutes in a solution of Sparkleen, a strong powder detergent. This lifted all the dust away and after a few rinses in DI water, it left the frustule as you see.
Cheers
Beats
Focus stacking isn't always ideal for thicker forms. So here's a short stack with different exposure to better show the "horns". I'm not sure if they're called ocelli or rimportulae, or something else. Perhaps someone can tell me, thanks.
Hi Steve,
thanks for sharing these wonderful images with loads of information in it.
best
anne
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your answer to my question and for showing the 2nd photo with the "horns" I have one more question: Can you please write us the link for the Sparkleen powder? There are so many Sparkleen.
Greetings from Siegfried
Nice images Beats!
I have never seen an A. reticulatum in an Oamaru sample. There are lots of them in the St. Laurent samples. Perhaps one flew from a St. Laurent strew to your Oamaru strew?
Or is the Oamaru sample from me so perhaps I'm the culprit?
Bill
Zitat von: bill2penn in Dezember 02, 2023, 16:38:40 NACHMITTAGSNice images Beats!
I have never seen an A. reticulatum in an Oamaru sample. There are lots of them in the St. Laurent samples. Perhaps one flew from a St. Laurent strew to your Oamaru strew?
Or is the Oamaru sample from me so perhaps I'm the culprit?
Bill
Hi Bill,
Thanks.
No, it's the real deal. It came from one of 8 open-strew slides of diatomite I personally cleaned about 4 years ago. I've been going through some half-forgotten stuff in a big slide cabinet. These strews are all marked Oamaru, but no specific location. I'm trying to free up some space but keep getting distracted by new finds instead. A nice problem to have though...
Siegfried - sorry no link. It's a product from the USA which I received from Bill along with some samples he kindly sent me. I'm surprised I didn't get a knock on the door after receiving an international parcel with an unlabelled bag of white powder in it! 😀
Cheers
Beats
Edit: I relaised I'd spelt the species, wrong - title changed to "A. reticulatus".
Hi Bill and Steve,
Nigel Charles had this diatom alss on his list for Oamaru, but did not found one species.
As I remember the base for his list was the book from Edwards.
best
anne