A view of the city of Munich - slightly different (II) |
Macrobiotus sp. tardigrade from Munich pavement moss. Lateral view in full movement, illustrating the typical movements, in this case resembling a lizard. Typical hollow-back habitus. Black eye pigment and green stomach content. Body length below 0.5 mm. |
Well-fed, elderly tardigrade (Macrobiotus sp.) from Munich pavement moss checking out a single moss stem. Photographed by means of incident light which is rendering the body volume in a whitish colour. Note the age-related dorsal pigment stains. The yellow image background reminding of the 1970s is due to the low colour temperature of some remaining transmitted light. High focus depth causing a relatively low detail resolution. |
Macrobiotus sp., frontal view, illustrating the "bear face" character. Once a gain, a difficult perspective and therefore little detail visible. Nevertheless the mouth tube, stylets and stomach are (faintly) visible. In combination those weak informations will suffice to form a kind of "face" impression in our brain. |
Macrobiotus sp., slightly different, a mixture of total view and anatomical detail. Testis (H) and stomach (M) are visible. The miniaturization of the sperm cells is a serious challenge for nature as all organs of a tardigrade are already marvels of miniaturization - as a consequence the sperm cells cannot be further miniaturized down to the same scale. So they appear to be rather big in relation to the tardigrade body size. |
Macrobiotus sp., as seen from top. The so-called macroplacoids within the pharyngeal bulb (M) are used to crush any remaining particles within the nutrition. Their morphology and pattern are of taxonomic importance. Image width ca. 200 µm. |
Macrobiotus sp., detail view of the last pair of legs with typical, symmetric Macrobiotus claws. "L" points to a so-called lunula, i.e. a dented spheroid claw base plate, "T" marks a so-called triangle, a dark structure at the claw base reminding of a tringle. Furthermore it becomes apparent that the Macrobiotus claws have a single stem which is branching like a Y towards the claw tips. Image width ca. 100 µm. |
Macrobiotus sp., typical "kissing" mouth. Image width ca. 100 µm |
Macrobiotus sp., in a more detailed anatomical view. The focus is set exactly on the walls of the mouth tube. Traces of an eloborate mouth tube locking system become visible. The "H" is marking a lobe of the brain which confines the eye. Furthermore you can see the muscles "M" which are controlling the stylets and the salivary glands (marked by the letter "S"). |
Have a nice summer! |
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Martin Mach (webmaster@baertierchen.de). |