And the Waters Turned to Blood Lit Circle Chapters 3-4: Amoeboid Form of the Dinoflagellate

(Sorry, the picture of the dino in its amoebae form is skewed because I messed up the settings or something on my paint program.)

As I stated before, this is a drawing of the dinoflagellate in its amoebae form. Previously, all that was known about the dino was that its dormant form was a photosynthetic cyst, and it had another 'monster' form, where it would secrete toxin and feed on fish, as well as mate. In this situation, it was an experiment done with crabs being exposed to the dinos in order to see how they reacted. The crabs weren't dying at all because there was a tiny ciliate (protozoan with hair-like structures) that had come into the environment with the crabs   and preyed on the dinoflagellate. This triggered the dino's ameboid stage, where it would grow into a bloblike amoeba that was 20x the size of the original.  Instead of cannibalizing its smaller life form, as Burkholder expected, it ate the ciliates and protected its 'little' siblings.

So far, the dino has the ability to survive in freshwater as well as saltwater, stay alive even when there is no water, and it also has defensive mechanisms against larger protozoans that may prey on it.