Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A protist (/ ˈ p r oʊ t ɪ s t / PROH-tist) or protoctist is any eukaryotic organism that is not an animal, land plant, or fungus.Protists do not form a natural group, or clade, but are a polyphyletic grouping of several independent clades that evolved from the last eukaryotic common ancestor.
A variety of multi-kingdom systems were proposed, and the Kingdoms Protista and Protoctista became established in biology texts and curricula. [ 22 ] [ 23 ] [ 24 ] By 1954, Protozoa were classified as "unicellular animals", as distinct from the "Protophyta", single-celled photosynthetic algae, which were considered primitive plants. [ 25 ]
A protist (/ ˈ p r oʊ t ɪ s t /) is any eukaryotic organism (one with cells containing a nucleus) that is not an animal, plant, or fungus.The protists do not form a natural group, or clade, since they exclude certain eukaryotes with whom they share a common ancestor; [a] but, like algae or invertebrates, the grouping is used for convenience.
Kingdom Protista (or Protoctista) is included in the traditional five- or six-kingdom model, where it can be defined as containing all eukaryotes that are not plants, animals, or fungi. [ 16 ] : 120 Protista is a paraphyletic taxon, [ 47 ] which is less acceptable to present-day biologists than in the past.
Combined with the five-kingdom model, this created a six-kingdom model, where the kingdom Monera is replaced by the kingdoms Bacteria and Archaea. [16] This six-kingdom model is commonly used in recent US high school biology textbooks, but has received criticism for compromising the current scientific consensus. [ 13 ]
Protistology is a scientific discipline devoted to the study of protists, a highly diverse group of eukaryotic organisms. All eukaryotes apart from animals, plants and fungi are considered protists. [1]
The Protist kingdom contains species that have been categorized due to the simplicity of their structure and being unicellular. These include protozoa , algae and slime molds . In marine ecosystems, macroalgae and microalgae make up a large portion of the photosynthetic organisms found.
The phylum Sarcomastigophora belongs to the Protista or protoctista kingdom and it includes many unicellular or colonial, autotrophic, or heterotrophic organisms. It is characterized by flagella, pseudopodia, or both. [1]