INVERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY - H. I. Shcherbak - 2008

PROTISTS - PROTISTA

PROTOZOANS (PROTOZOA)

FLAGELLATES

PHYLUM EUGLENOZOA

Free-living freshwater, rarer marine, and parasitic Protozoans; autotrophic and heterotrophic. Mononucleate, with one or two, more rarely several flagella emerging from a deep invagination at the anterior end of The Cell and possessing two to three microtubular roots. The flagella feature a paraxial rod. Cristae in Mitochondria are predominantly lamellar (disc-shaped), but may also take a tubular form. A cytostome (cell Mouth) is present in both heterotrophic and autotrophic species.

The pellicle contains strips of microtubules that reinforce it, allowing Cells to maintain a relatively constant shape.

Recent studies have shown that existing euglenozoan taxa may have had an ancestor whose symbiont was a green alga. Evidence for this includes the specific Structure of chromatophores in photosynthetic euglenoids and traces of them in the nuclear genome of heterotrophic kinetoplastids.

This phylum includes two classes.



Last update: 13/08/2026

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