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Renate Matzke-Karasz, Radka Symonova, Libor Morkovsky (Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany)
Ostracods are microscopically small crustaceans. They’re important for ecology, palaeontology and even for evolutionary biology research. While some taxa reproduce sexually, others are parthenogenetic – provably for a long time. Another interesting aspect of ostracod reproduction is the production of very long tailless spermatozoa, so called giant sperms. Presence of the giant sperms requires distinctive anatomical features in both male and female bodies. Visualizing of the ostracod anatomy using the conventional methods is problematic because the soft body of the animal is encased by two valves. The curved surface makes it difficult to get an overall view by light microscope, the fragility of the soft body poses a difficulty for using a scanning electron microscope for studying the inner anatomy. Histological methods allow only visualization of specific details. A recent method facilitated by high power synchrotron X-ray sources – holotomography – allows us to non-destructively scan the whole sample and then dissect the animal in silico. Here we present an approach combining histology, electron microscopy and holotomography to gain a deeper understanding o