How to Prepare Shells?

To observe shells under a microscope, it is necessary to prepare them properly. In most samples, shells are scarce and often obscured by accompanying debris and sand grains. There are several methods to remove the majority of this debris. Some methods use air bubbles to separate shells from the debris. A simple method was published by Todorov and Golemansky:

In the laboratory, the material was dried for one day in an incubator at 60°C. For microscopic analysis, the material was soaked and mixed in chlorinated tap water for about ten minutes and then filtered through a sieve with a 500 µm mesh to remove large organic and mineral particles. The resulting filtrate was allowed to stand for two hours, after which the sediment was removed and the shells floating on the surface were collected for examination. The study was conducted 12 hours after flotation, once the gas bubbles inside the shells had completely disappeared, making the shell structures clearly visible. Testate amoebae were identified and counted at 160x and 400x magnifications using an optical microscope.

Ferry Siemensma, created March 3, 2019; last modified January 22, 2025
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