Plankton Observations

One of the slides I viewed was sand. The sand was actually star-shaped plankton. It looked rough and pink with little red dots in the center. Some of the star-shaped "sand grains" had more than five sides. This plankton would be classified as macro phytoplankton because they are bigger than a millimeter. Another plankton observation was plankton that was made of tiny, glass boxes. Inside every little box are little lines, which I think are chloroplasts. The boxes are a rectangular shape. The box-shaped plankton are called diatoms. The last observation was a worm-type plankton. The worm was a green-brown color. Little small hairs were all over the worm's body. The head of the worm looked like it had small antennae and at the end of the worm were thin, long hairs. This plankton is called macro zooplankton because the worm is bigger than a millimeter and it eats phytoplankton. The pictures were taken by Mrs. Richardson.

Star-shaped Plankton

Box-shaped Plankton

Worm Plankton