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Kingdom Protista
Kingdom Protista
So what’s a protist? Is it an animal or plant? Protists are organisms that belong to the kingdom Protista. These organisms, all eukaryotes and mostly unicellular, do not fit neatly into any of the other kingdoms. You can think about protists as all eukaryotic organisms that are neither animals, nor plants, nor fungi. Even among themselves, they have very little in common – very simple structural organization and a lack of specialized structures are all that unify them as a group. Although the term protista was coined by Ernst Haeckel in 1866, the kingdom Protista was not an accepted classification in the scientific world until the 1960s.
As life on earth evolves, crude single celled monerans give rise to newer cells. These new comers have amazing advancements. First, they are eukaryotes ("eu"=true / "karyo"=nucleus.) Second, they have cellular organelles their prokaryotic ancestors could only dream of: Golgi bodies, lysosomes, mitochondria, chloroplasts, and more.
With these new advantages, protists face the world as a single cell.
Will the protists work together in colonies to make up for this? Read on to find out
Instructions - complete the following
Introductory Lessons
Meet the Protists with the Amoeba Sisters
Watch the following
Meet the Protists - an overview
Protist Movement: cilia & flagella
Protist Movement: ameboid motion& pseudopods
Animal-like Protists
The first major group of protists are quite animal-like. They must consume others to survive, making them heterotrophs. To organize this group of animal-like protists, we examine how they move. Four trends appear: cilia, flagella, pseudopods, and no movement at all.
Instructions - complete the following
Lessons
Lesson - from 13:40 onward for Animal-like Protists
Watch the following
Video - Ciliophorans like the paramecium use cilia to move
Video - Sarcodines use ameboid motion
Video - Zoomastiginans use whiplike motion of flagella
Video - Sporozoan (non-movers) protists cause malaria
Animation - Malarial Lifecycle
Animation - a Paramecium "Peeing"
Watch this Animation - all about Malaria
Read Section 20.2 pg 499 - 505 or Digital Text pg 184-187
Plant-like Protists
The second major group of protists are plant-like. As autotrophs, they produce their own food with sunlight. Intriguingly, the first autotrophs produce oil from photosynthesis. To organize this group, we consider them as different coloured algae. By "algae", we refer to floating photosynthetic, plant-like organisms. Not all algae belong to the plant kingdom. For example, blue-green algae are bacteria.
Instructions - complete the following
Lessons
Watch the following
Video - Euglenaphyta - the missing link between plant/animal
Video - Pyrophyta - Dinoflagellates cause Red Tide & make the news
Video - Red Tide Surfing at Night (not recommended ...)
Video - Chrystophta - Diatoms and Desmids
Read Section 20.3 and 20.4 pg 506-509 or Digital Text pg 188 - 189
Fungal-like Protists
The last major group of protists are fungus-like. They are similar to the fungi we all know and love, but can exist as single cells or associate into colonies. In a group, the fungal-like protists look and act like fungi would. The slime mold is a premier example of this group in action. To organize this group, we consider them as different coloured algae.
Instructions - complete the following
Lessons
Notes
Watch the following
Video - Research - 70 Years of Slime Molds
Video - Slime Mold Growing
Website- difference between Cellular / Acellular Slime Molds
Read Section 20.5 pg 516 - 525 or Digital Text pg 189
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