Today I will be talking about these wonderful things called protists and more specifically protozoa. Protists are Single or multi celled organisms that live in wet environments. The three main groups of protists are animal like, plant like, and fungi like protists.
Protozoa are the animal like protists. The same characteristic all protozoa share is that they all are eukaryotic, their cells have a nucleus. Most of these species are found in wet environments including lakes, rivers, ponds, and even in tiny puddles!!
Scientists classify these protists by how they move. The four main types of protozoan are ciliates, amoebas, flagellates, and sporozoa.
Ciliates are the most complex protozoans.They have two nuclei, the micronucleus and the macronucleus. The micronucleus controls reproduction and the macronucleus controls day to day functions.
Ciliates move by tiny little hairs called cilia. These cilia are most effective in water. 
Second I will be talking about amoebas. Amoebas move by using temporary extensions of their bodies called pseudopods meaning "false foot". They also use their pseudopods to capture food by surrounding it then capturing it. Many ameboids wear exoskeletons to protect their soft bodies.Next comes the flagellates. Flagellates use a whip-like tail to move and capture food around them. Their tails only work in water so you will only find flagellates in water environments.
Lastly are the sporozoan group. Sporozoan are parasitic with no means of moving by themselves for most of their life. They give no help to the host organism they are in and often hurt it.Some diseases that are caused by protozoans are Babesiosis and Malaria. The commonly known disease Malaria is caused by a sporozoan spread through mosquito bites. Symptoms are aches, chilles, headaches and can sometimes result in death. Babsiosis is caused by the babesia parasite that is transmitted through ticks. This disease is common in the northen cities of the U.S including New York and New Jersey. Symptoms are nausea, fatigue, and weight loss.
Some positive things about protozoa is that they help keep down the bacteria population and that they help other animals survive by providing food.
Links
No comments:
Post a Comment