Abstract
The protozoa may be classified as a phylum within the animal kingdom or they may, probably more sensibly, be included in the kingdom Protista. If the latter approach is taken the major groups of protozoa become phyla. The protozoa are eukaryotic organisms (eukaryotes) — those in which, inter alia, the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is contained within a membrane-bound nucleus. They are contrasted with prokaryotes (bacteria and cyanophytes or “blue-green algae”) in which this is not so. Protozoa include the smallest eukaryotes (though the largest protozoa are bigger than the smallest metazoa) and are often said to be the most primitive. This is true inasmuch as they probably differ the least from the original hypothetical group of living organisms that was ancestral to the members of both the plant and animal kingdoms, but protozoa have, of course, been evolving for just as long as we have, and some of them are very highly evolved.
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Further Reading
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© 1987 J. P. Kreier & J. R. Baker
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Kreier, J.P., Baker, J.R. (1987). Classification and evolution of the symbiotic protozoa. In: Parasitic Protozoa. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6847-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-6847-2_1
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