Coccospheres are strikingly beautiful and complex structures, especially when seen in three dimensions. Use a pair of red-green glasses to view the coloured images at the bottom of the page in 3D. Click images to see large versions.
The gallery illustrates 10 coccospheres from the Indian Ocean as both regular scanning electron micrographs and 3D images. The 3D images are stereo-pairs created by imaging the specimen twice in the SEM with a few degrees of tilt applied between the image pairs. The image pairs are then combined as red-green anaglyphs. The images were created by Dr Harald Andruleit of the German Geological Survey (BGR) and full details are given in an article by Andruleit et al. (2006). All specimens are from samples collected during the RV Sonne Cruise SO139 in February, 1999 from the eastern Indian Ocean off Java (Indonesia).
Copyright note: the images may be freely used for educational purposes but please request permission from the author (Dr Andruleit - h.andruleit@bgr.de) before using in publications or on the internet.
Reference: Andruleit H., Geisen M. & Stäger S. (2006). Stereo-microscopy of coccolithophores - modern applications for imaging and morphological analysis. Journal of Nannoplankton Research, 28/1, 1-16.
Created by Jeremy Young with iView MediaPro | Monday, October 16, 2006 | 13:19