Protozoa

This article is about the organisms. For associated infections, see Protozoan infection.
Clockwise from top left: Blepharisma japonicum, a ciliate; Giardia muris, a parasitic flagellate; Centropyxis aculeata, a testate (shelled) amoeba; Peridinium willei, a dinoflagellate; Chaos carolinense, a naked amoebozoan; Desmarella moniliformis, a choanoflagellate

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.[1][2] Historically, protozoans were regarded as "one-celled animals".

When first introduced by Georg Goldfuss, in 1818, the taxon Protozoa was erected as a class within the Animalia,[3] with the word 'protozoa' meaning "first animals", because they often possess animal-like behaviours, such as motility and predation, and lack a cell wall, as found in plants and many algae.[4][5][6]

This classification remained widespread in the 19th and early 20th century,[7] and even became elevated to a variety of higher ranks, including phylum, subkingdom, kingdom, and then sometimes included within the similarly paraphyletic Protoctista or Protista.[8]

By the 1970s, it became usual to require that all taxa be monophyletic (derived from a common ancestor that would also be regarded as protozoan), and holophyletic (containing all of the known descendants of that common ancestor). The taxon 'Protozoa' fails to meet these standards, so grouping protozoa with animals, and treating them as closely related, became no longer justifiable.

The term continues to be used in a loose way to describe single-celled protists (that is, eukaryotes that are not animals, plants, or fungi) that feed by heterotrophy.[9] Traditional textbook examples of protozoa are Amoeba, Paramecium, Euglena and Trypanosoma.[10]

  1. ^ Panno, Joseph (2014). The Cell: Evolution of the First Organism. Infobase Publishing. p. 130. ISBN 9780816067367.
  2. ^ Bertrand, Jean-Claude; Caumette, Pierre; Lebaron, Philippe; Matheron, Robert; Normand, Philippe; Sime-Ngando, Télesphore (2015). Environmental Microbiology: Fundamentals and Applications: Microbial Ecology. Springer. p. 9. ISBN 9789401791182.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Goldfuß was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Fenchel, Tom (1987). "Ecology of Protozoa". Brock/Springer Series in Contemporary Bioscience: 2. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-06817-5. ISBN 978-3-662-06819-9. ISSN 1432-0061. S2CID 44988543.
  5. ^ Madigan, Michael T. (2012). Brock Biology of Microorganisms. Benjamin Cummings. p. 43. ISBN 9780321649638.
  6. ^ Kudo, Richard R. (Richard Roksabro) (1954). Protozoology. MBLWHOI Library. Springfield, IL; C.C. Thomas. p. 5.
  7. ^ Copeland, HF (1956). The Classification of Lower Organisms. Palo Alto, CA: Pacific Books.
  8. ^ Scamardella, J. M. (1999). "Not plants or animals: A brief history of the origin of Kingdoms Protozoa, Protista, and Protoctista" (PDF). International Microbiology. 2 (4): 207–21. PMID 10943416. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-08-25. Retrieved 2020-07-08.
  9. ^ Yaeger, Robert G. (1996). Baron, Samuel (ed.). Protozoa: Structure, Classification, Growth, and Development. University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. ISBN 9780963117212. PMID 21413323. Retrieved 2020-07-07.
  10. ^ Ruggiero, Michael A.; Gordon, Dennis P.; Orrell, Thomas M.; Bailly, Nicolas; Bourgoin, Thierry; Brusca, Richard C.; Cavalier-Smith, Thomas; Guiry, Michael D.; Kirk, Paul M. (29 April 2015). "A Higher Level Classification of All Living Organisms". PLOS ONE. 10 (4): e0119248. Bibcode:2015PLoSO..1019248R. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0119248. PMC 4418965. PMID 25923521.