Top 10 Incredibly microscopic creatures

Nature is an incredible place that has a lot of mysterious things. Actually, it is very difficult to understand. To tell the truth, all of us are children of us. She gave birth to us so we have a responsibility to protest her.

Nature is in a very high stage than us. She made us so she can destroy us very easily. But some people think they are the greatest, they didn’t think about nature. They also think their creations and invents are the greatest. Others also think those are the greatest things but it is a wrong idea. If you can compare those things with natural creatures, you can simply identify your fault.

Natural creatures are greater than all other artificial things. Not only visible creatures but also invisible creatures are too complex for humans to comprehend. In that article, you can find out about incredibly Intricate Microscopic Organisms. I think they can Blow Your Mind out.

Top 10 Incredibly
 microscopic creatures 

Coccolithophores

A coccolithophore is unicellular, eukaryotic phytoplankton(alga). They belong either to the kingdom Protista. The coccolithophorids are in the phylum or division Haptophyta, class Prymnesiophyceae. Coccolithophorids are distinguished by special calcium carbonate plates (or scales) of an uncertain function called coccoliths, which are also important microfossils. This semi-organic structure is one of many kinds produced by single-celled algae called coccolithophores. Braarudosphaera Bigelow, the pentagonal species pictured above, is perfectly formed, almost as though it was factory-made. Twelve will cleave together to form a seamless dodecahedron about five microns in size.

Coccolithophores are spherical cells about 5–100 micrometers across, enclosed by calcareous plates called coccoliths, which are about 2–25 micrometers across. Each cell contains two brown chloroplasts which surround the nucleus. 

Coccolithophores produce monoliths in a variety of shapes. Most demonstrate unusual structural strength thanks to a series of interlocking crystals that support each face. 

Coccolithophores are almost exclusively marine and are found in large numbers throughout the sunlight zone of the ocean. It is studied for the extensive blooms it forms in nutrient-depleted waters after the reformation of the summer thermocline and for its production of molecules known as alkenones that are commonly used by earth scientists as a means to estimate past sea surface temperatures. Coccolithophores are of particular interest to those studying global climate change because as ocean acidity increases, their coccoliths may become even more important as a carbon sink.

Rotifers

The rotifers are commonly called wheel animals or wheel animalcules. make up a phylum of microscopic and near-microscopic pseudo coelomate animals. Rotifers, sometimes called “wheel animals,” are common microorganisms famous for their bizarre mouthparts. In front, two rings of cilia beat in synchronized motions to sweep food into the mouth. Behind these rotary organs lies a set of bony, highly articulated jaws.

They were first described by Rev. John Harris in 1696, and other forms were described by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek in 1703. Most rotifers are around 0.1–0.5 mm long (although their size can range from 50 μm to over 2 mm) and are common in freshwater environments throughout the world with few saltwater species. Some rotifers are free-swimming and truly planktonic, others move by inch worming along a substrate, and some are sessile, living inside tubes or gelatinous holdfasts that are attached to a substrate.

Rotifers are an important part of the freshwater zooplankton, being a major food source and with many species also contributing to the decomposition of soil organic matter. 

A rotifer’s jaws are just as intricate. As zoologist Dr. Ross Piper puts it, “For an animal so small and with only around 1,000 cells in its entire body, this structure is amazingly complex; an assemblage of muscles, ligaments, and toothed plates all working together to macerate the food before it’s digested.”

Loriciferans

Loricifera is a phylum of very small to microscopic marine cycloneuralian sediment-dwelling animals with 37 described species, in nine genera. there are approximately 100 more that have been collected and not yet described. Their sizes range from 100 μm to ca. 1 mm.

Referred to as “masters of miniaturization,” loriciferans are multicellular animals the size of most single-celled ones. A set of about 10,000 specialized cells allows them to have a disproportionately complex body.

Sensory spines called scales blossom like a bouquet from its vase-shaped body. At the center of this spiny crown is a mouth-cone that unfolds and emerges from the abdomen like a telescope.

The newly reported animals complete their life cycle in the total absence of light and oxygen, and they are less than a millimeter in size. They were collected from a deep basin at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, where they inhabit a nearly salt-saturated brine that, because of its density (> 1.2 g/cm³), does not mix with the waters above. As a consequence, this environment is completely anoxic and, due to the activity of sulfate reducers, contains sulphide at a concentration of 2.9 mM. Despite such harsh conditions, this anoxic and sulphidic environment is teeming with microbial life, both chemosynthetic prokaryotes that are primary producers, and a broad diversity of eukaryotic heterotrophs at the next trophic level.

Foraminifera (Forams)

Foraminifera is single-celled organisms, members of a   phylum or class of amoeboid protists characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm for catching food and other uses; and commonly an external shell (called a "test") of diverse forms and materials.

These shells are commonly made of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) or agglutinated

sediment particles. Over 50,000 species are recognized, both living (10,000)  and fossil (40,000). They are usually less than 1 mm in size, but some are much larger, the largest species reaching up to 20 cm.

These tests are miniature superstructures. Despite being less than 1 millimeter (.04 in) in size, a foram’s test can be as simple as a few fused spheres or cathedral-like, with countless winding chambers and arches hidden within.

Forams also grow pseudopodia, which are temporary fibrous growths seen in other unicellular protists. Forams, however, will combine their pseudopodia into living nets that capture their prey. The growths making up the nets are hollow and can act as a rudimentary circulatory system.

Osperalycus tenerphagus

In 2014, entomologist Samuel Bolton discovered a bizarre new species of mite outside the main campus of Ohio State University. Described as both “dragon-like” and “worm-like,” it was strange enough to warrant the creation of a whole new genus.

It lives in the space between particles in sandy, impoverished soils. Despite its dragon-like appearance, Osperalycus tenerphagus is a vulnerable creature and, out of necessity, a recluse.

“These mites are seldom found in soil with high organic content. This is probably because more things live there, including competitors and predators,” says Samuel Bolton, the entomologist who discovered the mite. They do better in adverse habitats where there are few other organisms, even others of their kind. Because these mites abstain from sex, “there is no reason for them to look for mates,” Bolton says

The mite’s long, soft body is covered in exquisite arrays of interlocking ridges and scales. The evolutionary history behind its unique way of moving is still a mystery. Using hydraulic pressure, its body stretches and contracts in an accordion-like motion to maneuver through microscopic gaps.

Enterobacteria Phage T4

Escherichia virus T4 is a species of bacteriophages that infect Escherichia coli bacteria. It is a double-stranded DNA virus in the subfamily Tevenvirinae from the family Myoviridae. T4 is capable of undergoing only a lytic lifecycle and not the lysogenic lifecycle. The species was formerly named T-even bacteriophage, a name which also encompasses, among other strains (or isolates), Enterobacteria phage T2, Enterobacteria phage T4, and Enterobacteria phage T6.

The specific time and place of T4 virus isolation remain unclear, though they were likely found in sewage or fecal material. T4 and similar viruses were described in a paper by Thomas F. Anderson, Max Delbrück, and Milislav Demerec in November 1944. 

The complete genome sequence of phage T4 contains 168,903 base pairs and encodes about 300 gene products. These virulent viruses have played a key role in the development of virology and molecular biology.

Phage T4 is a type of virus that has provided us with a wealth of information on genetics. It synthesizes some of the most complex particles seen in molecular biology and has become a sort of celebrity specimen due to its instantly recognizable structure.

The T4 is distinctly mechanical and bears a striking resemblance to NASA’s moon landing modules. Its “head,” a polyhedron with 20 faces, is carried atop a long rod that is structurally similar to the pipeline of an oil rig.

Dinoflagellates

The dinoflagellates are single-celled eukaryotes constituting the phylum  Dinoflagellata. Usually considered algae, dinoflagellates are mostly marine plankton, but they also are common in freshwater habitats. Their populations are distributed depending on sea surface temperature, salinity, or depth. Many dinoflagellates are known to be photosynthetic, but a large fraction of these are in fact mixotrophic, combining photosynthesis with ingestion of prey. 

To be specific, one dinoflagellate nucleus can contain as much as 250 picograms (pg) of DNA per cell. A human nucleus contains a mere 3.2 pg. Stranger still, some dinoflagellate species have nuclei that are triangular, tetragonal, kidney-shaped, or U-shaped.

Dinoflagellates are one of the largest groups of marine eukaryotes, although this group is substantially smaller than diatoms. Some species are endosymbionts of marine animals and play an important part in the biology of coral reefs. Other dinoflagellates are unpigmented predators on other protozoa, and a few forms are parasitic. Some dinoflagellates produce resting stages, called dinoflagellate cysts or dinocysts, as part of their lifecycles, and are known from 84 of the 350 described freshwater species, and from a little more than 10% of the known marine species. Dinoflagellates are alveolates possessing two flagella, the ancestral condition of bikonts.

Copepods

Copepods are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthic (living on the ocean floor), a number of species have parasitic phases, and some continental species may live in limnoterrestrial habitats and other wet terrestrial places, such as swamps, under leaf fall in wet forests, bogs, springs, ephemeral ponds, and puddles, damp moss, or water-filled recesses (phytotelmata) of plants such as bromeliads and pitcher plants. Many live undergrounds in marine and freshwater caves, sinkholes, or stream beds. Copepods are sometimes used as biodiversity indicators.

These crustaceans are so tiny that they can simply absorb oxygen. They have no need for a heart or circulatory system. Yet they have a remarkably well-organized, myelin-based nervous system, a trait previously thought to be exclusive to invertebrates.

Their specialized neural pathways give them acrobatic abilities that aren’t seen anywhere else in the animal kingdom. Proportionally speaking, the copepod is technically the world’s fastest and strongest animal. At less than 1 millimeter (.04 in) in size, they are capable of traveling 0.5 meters (1.6 ft) per second, within a few thousandths of a second. This is a feat of mechanical efficiency not yet achieved by any man-made motor.

Planktonic copepods are important to global ecology and the carbon cycle. They are usually the dominant members of the zooplankton and are major food organisms for small fish such as the dragonet, banded killifish, Alaska pollock, and other crustaceans such as krill in the ocean and in freshwater. Some scientists say they form the largest animal biomass on earth.

Diatoms

Diatoms are a major group of algae, specifically microalgae, found in the oceans, waterways, and soils of the world. Living diatoms make up a significant portion of the Earth's biomass: they generate about 20 to 50 percent of the oxygen produced on the planet each year, take in over 6.7 billion metric tons of silicon each year from the waters in which they live, and constitute nearly half of the organic material found in the oceans.

Diatoms also have a robust urea cycle, which is otherwise unique to animals. This feature allows them to make use of carbon and nitrogen more efficiently and may explain why diatoms exist in such huge numbers today.

Diatoms are unicellular: they occur either as solitary cells or in colonies, which can take the shape of ribbons, fans, zigzags, or stars. Individual cells range in size from 2 to 200 micrometers. In the presence of adequate nutrients and sunlight, an assemblage of living diatoms doubles approximately every 24 hours by asexual multiple fission; the maximum life span of individual cells is about six days.

They have only 6 days to live. We have a lifespan of approximately 60-70 years. If we lose what they do for us in 6 days, we will not live as long as they do. 

 

Radiolarians

The Radiolaria, also called Radiozoa, are protozoa of diameter 0.1–0.2 mm that produce intricate mineral skeletons, typically with a central capsule dividing the cell into the inner and outer portions of endoplasm and ectoplasm. The elaborate mineral skeleton is usually made of silica. Radiolarians of this kind have existed for at least 600 million years, and slightly simpler variants existed long before then.

They are found as zooplankton throughout the global ocean. As zooplankton, radiolarians are primarily heterotrophic, but many have photosynthetic  endosymbionts and are, therefore, considered mixotrophs. The skeletal remains of some types of radiolarians make up a large part of the cover of the ocean floor as siliceous ooze. Due to their rapid change as species and intricate skeletons, radiolarians represent an important diagnostic fossil found from the Cambrian onwards.

Those Microscopic Organisms are incredible definitely as well as they do a lot of things for us but we don't know about that. actually, we should thank them for those things. If they stop their work, that will be the end of us.