Plankton comes in many shapes and sizes. These are just a few of the thousands of examples. Click on any of the plankton samples in the gallery below and use the zoom tool to explore the different shapes and textures of these amazing organisms.

Want to learn more about plankton? We also have a companion story called Invisible Watery World that you might like to check out.

Amoeba Zooplankton	Copepod nauplius (larva) Zooplankton	Ciliate Zooplankton
Nematode Zooplankton	Coelastrum (green algae) Phytoplankton	Fragilariopsis cylindrus (diatom) Phytoplankton
Chlamydomonas (green algae) Phytoplankton	Filamentous cyanobacteria and pennate diatoms Phytoplankton	Centric diatom Phytoplankton
Filamentous green algae Phytoplankton	Tetraselmis and rotifer Phytoplankton and zooplankton	Pennate diatom Phytoplankton
Tetraselmis Phytoplankton	Scenedesmus Phytoplankton	Pennate diatom Phytoplankton

In case you are wondering why there are white lines on each image, they are used to show the size of each plankton. Microscopists call these lines scale bars, because they let a person know the size of an object. All the white lines above are equal to 50 micrometers.