Saprodinium dentatum is by far one of the most common odontostomatid ciliates I find in my sites. The species is found in all waters with a mud layer with decaying leaves or between decaying plant masses. In contrast to other representatives of odontostomatid ciliates, Saprodinium dentatum is realtively large with 40–80 µm. In my populations the specimens were consistently longer than 70 µm and some specimens even reached 90 µm (s. fig. 3 a-b). The identification of this species is very simple. The body shape is mostly distinctly lenticular and there are 8 spines surrounding an indentation at the posterior end. There are 3 spines arranged on each side and two more on the anterior and posterior sides (s.  fig. 4). The perizonal row is very long. It starts on the right side near the dorsal margin and covers the front side up to the left side, where it ends after a short distance (s. fig. 5). Characteristically, Saprodinium dentatum almost always has 3 macronuclei and only one micronucleus (s. figs. 2b and 3b). Like all odontostomatid ciliates, symbiotic bacteria are found also in Saprodinium dentatum (s. fig. 7). There are rod-shaped bacteria with straight ends (3.4–5.0 µm long) and rod-shaped bacteria with rounded ends (5.0–5.1 µm long).