portrait

Description:

Portrait of heterophrys, a small heliozoon coated in very thin organic spines. This thin axopodia contain prominent spherical extrusomes are fully extended in this image. Axopodia contract when the organism is disturbed, bunching extrusomes at the cell surface as seen in the other image. Usually described as a marine genus, these individuals were collected from an organically enriched standing freshwater pond near Boise, Idaho. Phase contrast