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LIVE ROTIFER BIRTH
An Amateur Microscopy movie
© Microscopy-UK 1997
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Low Res Quicktime movie
LOMO Biolam, 20x objective, Panasonic C-mount WV-CL350 security camera (430 line resolution). Recorded ca. 1985.
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Edited video
clip from DVD showing the live birth of a bdelloid rotifer, genus Rotaria
Showing mother before birth and mother and youngster after the birth.
Birth
at ca. 2.5 minutes.
Above uses Xvid compression, 1.8 Mbytes. Codecs here if doesn't play on Windows / Linux PC.
For Windows / Mac with DivX codec, a video is here, but larger, 11 Mbytes. DivX Codecs are here.
This is a video sequence of an event that is rarely seen. A rotifer giving birth to live young! Most species of rotifer are egg layers where eggs are laid either outside or inside the body; these hatch into live young. However, some genus of rotifers give birth to live young. The video shows a rotifer of the order Bdelloidea, family Philodinidae and genus Rotaria. The birth occurred while the author was watching the rotifer on a slide under a cover slip! The mother seems to contract quite markedly during the birth before the single youngster is ejected from the posterior end. The youngster is fully formed and not much smaller than its mother. The mother was lethargic after birth, unlike the lively youngster. Rotifers of this species are typically up to 500um long.
The video sequence was filmed by David Walker, a keen amateur microscopist, (and the current editor of Micscape Magazine).
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