Diatoms – The Kolbe collection
In our microfossil collections, we have an interesting array of microscopic diatoms. Over half of the collection have been identified to genus level and all 9,000 specimens are registered in the database.
Diatoms are small unicellular algae that are found almost everywhere on earth. They belong to a large group comprising several types of algae, notably brown algae that thrive in the colder waters of the Northern Hemisphere. The name of the group refers to the shell of silica that surrounds the organism, a shell of two identical halves, one slightly larger than the other, like a box with a bottom and a lid.
Diatoms sometimes contribute to algal blooms and by analyzing the composition of diatoms in, for example, lake sediments, researchers can describe the environmental conditions, even in the distant past, because the diatom shells are typically resistant to decomposition.