Protozoans are the most abundant living beings in the world having their own kingdom (protoctista) shared with sea weeds and imperfect mushrooms. Their main importance is as consumers of bacterias (prokaryotes belonging to the Monera kingdom). Bacterias play a major role in maintaining the Earth as a suitable place for inhabitation by other forms of life and protozoans play a vital role in controlling their numbers and biomass.Protozoans are defined as single-celled eukaryotic organisms, that feed heterotrophically and exhibit diverse motility mechanisms.Four major groups of protozoa are recognized and often given the status of phylum. The groups are:
- Flagellates
- Amebae
- Sporozoans
- Ciliates
Amoeba
A paramecium, the most abundant ciliate
Some cool websites for learning about protozoans
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/trnov01b.htm
http://www.uga.edu/protozoa/education/students/for_students_sop_web_ora.doc
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