The Diatom Gallery

Rebecca Teed
Limnological Research Center
University of Minnesota

Diatoms are single-celled algae that create intricate glass shells for themselves. Each species has a distinct shell (distinguishable under high magnification: 1000X, anyway!) and each has different tolerances for the kind of water in which they can live. I study shells that are preserved in lake sediments to see how water conditions have changed in the past. So far, I've just got a few pictures of fossil specimens from the sediment (28 cm below the sediment surface) of Catfish Pond, Illinois. These images were taken with a microscope that magnified the subects 1000X, except for Pinnularia maior which was magnified 400X.

Eunotia monodon Ehr. var. monodon



Pinnularia maior (Kutz.) Rabh. var. maior



Cyclotella menegheniana Kutz. var. menegheniana



Caloneis lewisii Patr. var. lewisii



Amphora cf. ovalis Kutz. var. affinis Vitt. ex. De.T.



Encyonema triangulum (Ehr.) Cl. var. triangulum



Neidium affine (Ehr.) Pfitz. tenuirostris A. Mayer



Stauroneis phoenicenteron Nitz. Ehr. var phoenicenteron



Achnanthidium hungarica var. hungarica



Aulacoseira #10 (PIRLA)



Eunotia pectinalis (Mull.?) Rabh. minor (Kutz.) Rabh.






© 2000 Rebecca Teed.