Bathycoccus prasinos

Taxonomy: Eukaryota; Viridiplantae; Chlorophyta; Prasinophyceae; Mamiellales

Introduction

Bathycoccus is a tiny single-cell coccoid prasinophycean. The prasinophyceae are marine flagellates that form the pico-plankton. Bathycoccus however is one of the few species that seems to lack a flagellate stage in his life-cycle.
Bathycoccus has about the same size as a bacterium and is very common in the northern Atlantic Ocean. The cells are covered by delicate overlapping scales, which have a spider 's-web structure and are formed within vesicles (probably Golgi vesicles). The organelles are tightly packed within the cell.