Kingdom Protista

If you look at a drop of pond water under a microscope, you might see "little creatures" swimming around, they are called

protists–meaning “the very first.”

Protists are either plant-like, animal-like or fungus-like.

Plant-like protists are autotrophs –meaning they contain chloroplasts and make their own food.

Animal-like and fungus-like protists and are heterotrophs-meaning they have to ingest food.

Protozoans are animal-like protists.

Protozoa means "little animal.“

They are so named because many species behave like tiny animals—specifically, they hunt and gather other microbes as food.

The first group of Protozoa's include amoebae <ah-me-bee.

Amoebae ooze along by means of pseudopodia (false feet) engulfing food as they go.

Amoebae live in water or moist places.

They have a cell membrane but no cell wall.

Click on the picture to watch a video of an amoeba

The second group is the Flagellates <flah-geh-lets>, and have one or several long, whip-like projections called flagella poking out of their cells.

Flagellates use their flagella to move.

The third group of protozoans are the ciliates. These are generally the largest protozoa.

They are covered with hair-like projections called cilia and they eat the other two types of protozoa as well as bacteria.

Ciliates are found in every aquatic habitat.

Paramecium are ciliates.

Plant-like protists are algae.

Algae are autotrophs.

They, along with other eukaryotic autotrophs, form the foundation of Earth’s food chains.

They produce much of Earth’s oxygen.

Members of first phylum of algae,

Euglenophyta, are both plant-like and

animal-like.

Euglena are autotrophs since they make food from sunlight and

Heterotrophs since they ingest food from surrounding water.

Euglena- the plant like animal

Euglena are interesting because they are a sort of combination of plant and animal. They can make their own food like a plant, but they can also eat other things, like an animal. They can also swim and move. Scientists argued for years about which Kingdom to put them in, Animal or Plant? Right now they are in neither; most scientists put them in the Protist Kingdom with other microscopic organisms, such as amoeba and paramecium.

picture of an Euglena

Watch videos

http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-evolution-of-protists-importance-evolutionary-history.html

http://study.com/academy/lesson/fungus-like-protists-characteristics-types-examples.html

http://study.com/academy/lesson/3-methods-of-protist-locomotion.html