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Abstract:
A new phototrophic species of freshwater dinoflagellates, Peridinium euryceps sp. nov., is described from Lake Erken, Sweden. It is a large and extremely flattened dinoflagellate with a characteristic shape and a tabulation that differs from known species of the same genus. Peridinium euryceps appears during winter underneath the ice, encysts at ice melt, and then remains dormant as cysts during summer. This new species has morphological and ecological similarities with Peridinium baicalense, a species endemic to Lake Baikal, Russia. The autoecology of P. euryceps is discussed, as well as the ecology of cryophilic and cold-stenothermic dinoflagellates in general. It is argued that these species have special adaptations for survival underneath the ice, such as a flattened shape and mixotrophic feeding.