The Heliomonadida
(formerly Dimorphida
) are a small group of
heliozoa
Heliozoa, commonly known as sun-animalcules, are microbial eukaryotes ( protists) with stiff arms ( axopodia) radiating from their spherical bodies, which are responsible for their common name. The axopodia are microtubule-supported projections f ...
n
amoeboid
An amoeba (; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; plural ''am(o)ebas'' or ''am(o)ebae'' ), often called an amoeboid, is a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and retracting pseudopo ...
s that are unusual in possessing
flagella throughout their
life cycle
Life cycle, life-cycle, or lifecycle may refer to:
Science and academia
*Biological life cycle, the sequence of life stages that an organism undergoes from birth to reproduction ending with the production of the offspring
* Life-cycle hypothesis ...
.
Classification
Genetic studies place them among the
Cercozoa, a group including various other
flagellates that form
filose pseudopodia. This order has recently been placed into the new
class
Class or The Class may refer to:
Common uses not otherwise categorized
* Class (biology), a taxonomic rank
* Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects
* Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...
of naked
filose cercozoan
Cercozoa is a phylum of diverse single-celled eukaryotes. They lack shared morphological characteristics at the microscopic level, and are instead defined by molecular phylogenies of rRNA and actin or polyubiquitin. They were the first major e ...
s called
Granofilosea
Granofilosea is a class of cercozoans in the subphylum Filosa.
Three groups that were traditionally considered heliozoans belong here: the Heliomonadida, Desmothoracida and Gymnosphaerida, which were recently grouped into the new class of Gra ...
.
There are two genera in this
order:
* ''
Heliomorpha'', a tiny organism found in freshwater
* the larger ''
Tetradimorpha'', which is distinguished by having four rather than two flagella.
Morphology
Bundles of
microtubules, typically in square array, arise from a body near the flagellar bases and support the numerous axopods that project from the cell surface.
Dimorphids have a single
nucleus
Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to:
*Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom
* Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA
Nucl ...
, and
mitochondria with tubular cristae.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5705752
Granofilosea
Cercozoa orders
Amoeboids
Taxa named by Thomas Cavalier-Smith