Martyn has now had time to have at least a cursory look at the diatoms we collected at Pangong Tso three weeks ago and the exciting news is that some may be ‘new to science’! Confirmation of this will need to wait until the diatoms’ silica frustules (shells) have been cleaned up by having the cell contents removed – these obscure the delicate patterns which are one of the features relied on for identification by taxonomists.

Here is the link to his post on the subject: http://microscopesandmonsters.wordpress.com/2014/10/02/diatoms-from-the-roof-of-the-world/