Odontella aurita, formerly Biddulphia aurita, is a common marine diatom rich in eicosapentanoic acid(an omega 3 fatty acid), other polyunsaturated fatty acids and fucoxanthin. It is found in both deep and shallow marine waters. It can form chains. Cultivation is a promising method to produce sizeable amounts of these beneficial compounds. Its usual diameter is about 15 to 30 microns, though uncommonly, it can be as large as 100 microns.
The first image is an N.I.C. stacked picture from a J.D. Moller 335-form Type Slide. The second image is also NIC taken with an olympus 100X S-plan Apo oil immersion objective with oiled condenser, multiple stacked images, and processed with autocontrast and autolevels in photoshop.
The third image is a stacked NIC image taken with an Olympus S-Plan 40X objective using Helicon Focus software, and then using the autolevels command in photoshop. Finally, the bottom image is a video 3D reconstruction using Helicon Focus' saving as 3D video function.
