no problem! it's really cool to know a teacher talking about these topics :)

awesome! I'd give you a link to my thesis but it's not yet published in a journal 😅 still WIP. but my colleagues began that line of research on testate amoebae a decade ago. for example, in this paper they show how morphology overlaps between genetically distinct species, very similar to my thesis

I actually did my master thesis on how appearance is often completely unreliable when it comes to these amoebae! happy to know my bit of knowledge is being shared. the phenomenon is called "cryptic diversity", where many separate species share the same shell size and shape. happens in animals too

additional specimens would help, especially to confirm the absence of horns and the true shape of its opening (as well as getting its average size). p.s. I'm honored to be considered an 'expert opinion' hehe, that's a first :)

judging by the sphere shape and the opening it definitely looks like a Netzelia, but it's weird that the shell is completely horn-less. there's several Difflugia species with a fully spherical horn-less shell too, such as D. lithoplites and D. globulosa. unfortunately there's a lot of convergence

go ahead, but I must say ID is not my strength – I tend to just sequence their genes to really find out what they are 😅 however I do have several taxonomic keys, and I'm relatively good at guessing higher groupings, so ask away

that's awesome, I'll definitely check out your playlist asap

that's gorgeous! wish I had good equipment to record my microbes

I made the Wikipedia article for telonemids, and while researching them I remember learning about those shared traits with SAR. It was quite unexpected to find that out

Yes, I think Telonemids have hairy flagella iirc, as well as dinoflagellates?

for those interested, I also manage a wikiproject for protists! anyone's welcome to collaborate