These Euglena-like Protista were found in 82-ppt saline water at the Weep site, Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Reserve. They carry out photosynthesis, but are grouped with Protista such as Paramecium and Amoeba. Search "Euglena" on Wikipedia to discover more.

These are Cyanobacteria, a species of Oscillatoria, seen at 1,000x magnification. Each of the little disks in the long filament is a single cell, tracing its ancestory back 3.5-billion years. They spent the first 3-billion years creating our oxygen atmosphere, and Cyanobacte...