Chlorophyta or Prasinophyta is a taxon of green algae informally called chlorophytes. The name is used in two very different senses, so care is needed to determine the use by a particular author. In older classification systems, it refers to a highly paraphyletic group of all the green algae within the green plants (Viridiplantae) and thus includes about 7,000 species of mostly aquatic photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. In newer classifications, it refers to the sister clade of the streptophytes/charophytes. The clade Streptophyta consists of the Charophyta in which the Embryophyta emerged. In this latter sense the Chlorophyta includes only about 4,300 species. About 90% of all known species live in freshwater. Like the land plants, green algae contain chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b and store food as starch in their plastids.
The alveolates are a group of protists, considered a major clade and superphylum within Eukarya. They are currently grouped with the stramenopiles and Rhizaria among the protists with tubulocristate mitochondria, the group being referred to as SAR.
The plagiopylids are a small order of ciliates, including a few forms common in anaerobic habitats.
The Litostomatea are a class of ciliates. The group consists of three subclasses: Haptoria, Trichostomatia and Rhynchostomatia. Haptoria includes mostly carnivorous forms such as Didinium, a species of which preys primarily on the ciliate Paramecium. Trichostomatia (trichostomes) are mostly endosymbionts in the digestive tracts of vertebrates. These include the species Balantidium coli, which is the only ciliate parasitic in humans. The group Rhynchostomatia includes two free-living orders previously included among the Haptoria, but now known to be genetically distinct from them, the Dileptida and the Tracheliida.
The hypotrichs are a group of ciliated protozoa, common in fresh water, salt water, soil and moss. Hypotrichs possess compound ciliary organelles called "cirri," which are made up of thick tufts of cilia, sparsely distributed on the ventral surface of the cell. The multiple fused cilia which form a cirrus function together as a unit, enabling the organism to crawl along solid substrates such as submerged debris or sediments. Hypotrichs typically possess a large oral aperture, bordered on one side by a wreath or collar of membranelles, forming an "adoral zone of membranelles," or AZM.
The stichotrichs were a proposed group of ciliates, in the class Spirotrichea. In a classification system proposed by Eugene Small and Denis Lynn in 1985, Stichotrichia formed a subclass containing four orders: Stichotrichida, Urostylida, Sporadotrichida and Plagiotomida. Although the group was made up of species traditionally classified among the "hypotrichs"--ciliates possessing compound ciliary organelles called cirri--it excluded euplotid ciliates such as Euplotes and Diophrys, which were placed in the subclass Hypotrichia. In later classifications proposed by Denis Lynn, Stichotrichia omits the order Plagiotomida.
Lophotrochozoa is a clade of protostome animals within the Spiralia. The taxon was established as a monophyletic group based on molecular evidence. The clade includes animals like annelids, molluscs, bryozoans, brachiopods, and platyhelminthes.
Pterobranchia is a class of small worm-shaped animals. They belong to the Hemichordata, and live in secreted tubes on the ocean floor. Pterobranchia feed by filtering plankton out of the water with the help of cilia attached to tentacles. There are about 25 known living pterobranch species in three genera, which are Rhabdopleura, Cephalodiscus, and Atubaria. On the other hand, there are several hundred extinct genera, some of which date from the Cambrian Period.
Neodiapsida is a clade, or major branch, of the reptilian family tree and includes all diapsids apart from some early primitive types known as the araeoscelidians.
Paulinella is a genus of about nine species of freshwater amoeboids.
Karyorelictea is a class of ciliates in the subphylum Postciliodesmatophora. Most species are members of the microbenthos community, that is, microscopic organisms found in the marine interstitial habitat, though one genus, Loxodes, is found in freshwater.
Prostomatea is a class of ciliates. It includes the genera Coleps and Pelagothrix.
The ciliates are a group of protozoans characterized by the presence of hair-like organelles called cilia, which are identical in structure to eukaryotic flagella, but are in general shorter and present in much larger numbers, with a different undulating pattern than flagella. Cilia occur in all members of the group and are variously used in swimming, crawling, attachment, feeding, and sensation.
Euplotes is a genus of ciliates in the subclass Euplotia. Species are widely distributed in marine and freshwater environments, as well as soil and moss. Most members of the genus are free-living, but two species have been recorded as commensal organisms in the digestive tracts of sea urchins.
Mobilida is a group of parasitic or symbiotic peritrich ciliates, comprising more than 280 species. Mobilids live on or within a wide variety of aquatic organisms, including fish, amphibians, molluscs, cnidarians, flatworms and other ciliates, attaching to their host organism by means of an aboral adhesive disk. Some mobilid species are pathogens of wild or farmed fish, causing severe and economically damaging diseases such as trichodinosis.
Eurypygimorphae or Phaethontimorphae is a clade of birds that contains the orders Phaethontiformes (tropicbirds) and Eurypygiformes recovered by genome analysis. The relationship was first identified in 2013 based on their nuclear genes. Historically these birds were placed at different parts of the tree, with tropicbirds in Pelecaniformes and the kagu and sunbittern in Gruiformes. Some genetic analyses have placed the eurypygimorph taxa in the controversial and obsolete clade Metaves, with uncertain placement within that group. More recent molecular studies support their grouping together in Eurypygimorphae, which is usually recovered as the sister taxon to Aequornithes within Ardeae.
Intramacronucleata is a subphylum of ciliates. The group is characterized by the manner in which division of the macronucleus is accomplished during binary fission of the cell. In ciliates of this subphylum, division of the macronucleus is achieved by the action of microtubules which are assembled inside the macronucleus itself. This is in contrast to heterotrich ciliates of the subphylum Postciliodesmatophora, in which division of the macronucleus relies on microtubules formed outside the macronuclear envelope.
Armophorea is a class of ciliates in the subphylum Intramacronucleata. . It was first resolved in 2004 and comprises three orders: Metopida, Clevelandellida, and Armophorida. Previously members of this class were thought to be heterotrichs because of similarities in morphology, most notably a characteristic dense arrangement of cilia surrounding their oral structures. However, the development of genetic tools and subsequent incorporation of DNA sequence information has led to major revisions in the evolutionary relationships of many protists, including ciliates. Metopids, clevelandellids, and armophorids were grouped into this class based on similarities in their small subunit rRNA sequences, making them one of two so-called "riboclasses" of ciliates, however, recent analyses suggest that Armophorida may not be related to the other two orders.
Protocruziea is a class of ciliates in the subphylum Intramacronucleata.
Parablepharismea is a class of free-living marine and brackish anaerobic ciliates that form a major clade of obligate anaerobes within the SAL group, together with the classes Muranotrichea and Armophorea.
