ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Dinocyst

Hey kiddo, do you know what a dinocyst is? It's a really cool thing that comes from ancient microscopic creatures called dinoflagellates.

Think of dinoflagellates as really tiny plants that live in the ocean. They have a hard outer shell called a cyst that protects them from the environment. Just like how you wear a coat to protect yourself from the cold.

Dinocysts are the leftover shells of these dinoflagellates that settled on the ocean floor and got buried over time. Scientists can dig them up and study them to learn more about what the ancient ocean used to look like.

It's like finding a time capsule that holds secrets about the past. Dinocysts are special because they can tell us about things like the water temperature and the type of organisms that lived in the ocean a long time ago.

So even though dinocysts are just old shells, they help us learn a lot about the history of our planet!