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The various single-cell eukaryotes were originally placed with plants or animals when they became known. In 1818, the German biologist Georg A. Goldfuss coined the word Protozoa to refer to organisms such as ciliates, [57] and this group was expanded until Ernst Haeckel made it a kingdom encompassing all single-celled eukaryotes, the Protista ...
A multicellular organism is an organism that consists of more than one cell, unlike unicellular organisms. [1] All species of animals, land plants and most fungi are multicellular, as are many algae, whereas a few organisms are partially uni- and partially multicellular, like slime molds and social amoebae such as the genus Dictyostelium. [2] [3]
Animals have several characteristics that set them apart from other living things. Animals are eukaryotic and multicellular. [14] Unlike plants and algae, which produce their own nutrients, [15] animals are heterotrophic, [16] [17] feeding on organic material and digesting it internally. [18] With very few exceptions, animals respire aerobically.
After the LECA, some 2 billion years ago, the eukaryotes diversified into a crown group, which gave rise to animals, plants, fungi, and protists. Eukaryogenesis , the process which created the eukaryotic cell and lineage, is a milestone in the evolution of life, since eukaryotes include all complex cells and almost all multicellular organisms.
One hypothesis of eukaryotic relationships depicted by Alastair Simpson. In this system the multicellular animals are descended from the same ancestor as both the unicellular choanoflagellates and the fungi which form the Opisthokonta. [45] Plants are thought to be more distantly related to animals and fungi.
A life form (also spelled life-form or lifeform) is an entity that is living, [1] [2] such as plants , animals , and fungi . It is estimated that more than 99% of all species that ever existed on Earth, amounting to over five billion species, [3] are extinct. [4] [5] Earth is the only celestial body known to harbor life forms. No form of ...
Prokaryotes are single-celled organisms such as bacteria, whereas eukaryotes can be either single-celled, such as amoebae, or multicellular, such as some algae, plants, animals, and fungi. Eukaryotic cells contain organelles including mitochondria, which provide energy for cell functions; chloroplasts, which create sugars by photosynthesis, in ...
Microscopic organisms were increasingly constrained in the plant/animal dichotomy. In 1858, the palaeontolgist Richard Owen was the first to define Protozoa as a separate kingdom of eukaryotic organisms, with "nucleated cells" and the "common organic characters" of plants and animals, although he also included sponges within protozoa. [28]