Protoperidinium sp. is a large genus of ubiquitous marine heterotrophic dinoflagellates. This genus typically follows diatom blooms and are generally distributed along coastal regions. Protoperidinium have been found to feed on diatoms via extracellular digestion. Protoperidinium sp. have an armored cell of variable shape. 

Protoperidinium is a phytoplankton in the family Protoperidiniaceae. Protoperidinium is a dinoflagellate. Sometimes dinoflagellates produce a toxin, Protoperidinium specficially creates a toxin called Azaspiracid. The toxin Azaspiracid is a Neurotoxin, which means it affects the nervous system. Protoperidinium has an armored shape, and most species have an absence of chloroplasts within them. They have pinkish to yellowish hues, and are generally 100 um in size. They are wide spread throughout all of the world’s oceans.

Many species have very small atypical spines or horns. Some species also have chloroplasts. Along the coast of Ireland, the Protoperidinium have been found to feed on organisms thought to have belonged to a higher trophic level. They have found consumption of copepod eggs and nauplii. They were also found to live for an extended period of time, up to 71 days, in cases of starvation or extremely low food availability. Protoperidinium sp., along with other microzooplankton, may play an important role controlling the population of phytoplankton. This is all the information I could find without starting to repeat myself.

Protoperidinium sp. floating in the water.

In terms of human morals and symbology, this microorganism could represent of the human need of consumption. By this, we could take after the protoperidinium and not mindlessly indulge in needless activities and material possessions. We need to strip ourselves to the bare minimum and go back to our roots and only take what we need and not to gorge ourselves. Overconsumption leads to greed and as a human race we have been to greedy with our resource usage and now our planet is in dange

Protoperidinium depressum painted by Randa

Protoperidinium swiming