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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Fact of the Day for May 10, 1999
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What kind of life forms live inside glass shells?
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Diatoms (Bacillariophyta) are tiny, floating, one-celled life forms
that build intricate shells out of silicon dioxide, the compound found
in glass, sand, and rock crystal. Their minute shells are beautiful
structures with very tiny details, and there are thousands of
varieties.
The shell of a diatom has two halves called frustules. One of the
frustules is slightly larger than the other, and they fit together
tightly. Most diatom frustules are decorated with hundreds of tiny
holes, grooves, or bumps, arranged in regular patterns.
Diatoms have been around for hundreds of millions of years. They are
very important to Earth's ecology, producing about a quarter of all
the free oxygen in the atmosphere. Although they may seem like
plants, they have recently been assigned to a new kingdom, the
Chromista, along with some other related life forms.
More about diatoms:
http://botany.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa082697.htm
http://www.comet.net/gek/phytoc.htm
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/mag/art97b/diatom.html
The Chromista includes some strangely diverse life forms:
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/chromista/chromista.html
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