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Protozoa (sg.: protozoan or protozoon; alternative plural: protozoans) are a polyphyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes, either free-living or parasitic, that feed on organic matter such as other microorganisms or organic debris.
Marine protists are defined by their habitat as protists that live in marine environments, that is, in the saltwater of seas or oceans or the brackish water of coastal estuaries. Life originated as marine single-celled prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) and later evolved into more complex eukaryotes. Eukaryotes are the more developed life forms ...
Amorphea is roughly equivalent to the concept of 'unikonts', meaning 'single cilium', although it currently contains several organisms with more cilia. [102] It is defined as the smallest clade containing the groups Amoebozoa (containing mostly slime moulds and amoebae) and Opisthokonta (containing fungi, animals, and their closest relatives).
Microfauna are present in every habitat on Earth. They fill essential roles as decomposers and food sources for lower trophic levels, and are necessary to drive processes within larger organisms. Populations of microfauna can reach up to ~10 7 (~10,000,000) individuals per g −1 (0.1g, or 1/10th of a gram) and are very common in plant litter ...
It gets its name from the combination of "Sarcodina" (which is an older term used for amoeboids) [4] and "Mastigophora" (which is an older term for flagellates).. The characteristics of phylum sarcomastigophora are :
Some ciliates are mouthless and feed by absorption , while others are predatory and feed on other protozoa and in particular on other ciliates. Some ciliates parasitize animals , although only one species, Balantidium coli , is known to cause disease in humans.
Acanthamoeba spp. are among the most prevalent protozoa found in the environment. [1] They are distributed worldwide, and have been isolated from soil, air, sewage, seawater, chlorinated swimming pools, domestic tap water, bottled water, dental treatment units, hospitals, air-conditioning units, and contact lens cases.
In other words, the term Myzozoa, meaning "to siphon the contents from prey", may be applied informally to the common ancestor of the subset of alveolates that are neither ciliates nor colponemids. Predation upon algae is an important driver in alveolate evolution, as it can provide sources for endosymbiosis of novel plastids.