'Protozoa', a diverse group of unicellular eukaryotic organisms, many of which are motile. Originally, protozoa had been defined as unicellular protists with animal-like behavior, e.g., movement. Protozoa were regarded as the partner group of protists to protophyta, which have plant-like behaviour, e.g., photosynthesis.
Following the Greek root of the name cillia, the singular form is protozoon /proʊtəˈzoʊ.ɒn/. Its use has, however, partially bee...
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'Protozoa', a diverse group of unicellular eukaryotic organisms, many of which are motile. Originally, protozoa had been defined as unicellular protists with animal-like behavior, e.g., movement. Protozoa were regarded as the partner group of protists to protophyta, which have plant-like behaviour, e.g., photosynthesis.
Following the Greek root of the name cillia, the singular form is protozoon /proʊtəˈzoʊ.ɒn/. Its use has, however, partially been replaced by the word protozoan, which was originally only used as an adjective. In the same manner the plural form protozoans is sometimes being used instead of protozoa.
In general, protozoa are referred to as animal-like protists because of movement (motile). However, both protozoa and protists are paraphyletic groups (not including all genetic relatives of the group). For example, Entamoeba is more closely related to humans than to Euglena. "Protozoa" is considered an outdated classification in more formal contexts. However, the term is...
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