Muranotrichea is a class of free-living marine

anaerobic Anaerobic means "living, active, occurring, or existing in the absence of free oxygen", as opposed to aerobic which means "living, active, or occurring only in the presence of oxygen." Anaerobic may also refer to: * Anaerobic adhesive, a bonding a ...

ciliate The ciliates are a group of alveolates characterized by the presence of hair-like organelles called cilia, which are identical in structure to flagellum, eukaryotic flagella, but are in general shorter and present in much larger numbers, with a ...

s, that, together with the classes

Parablepharismea Parablepharismea is a class of free-living marine and brackish anaerobic ciliates that form a major clade of obligate {{wiktionary, obligate As an adjective, obligate means "by necessity" (antonym ''facultative'') and is used mainly in biology in ...

and

Armophorea Armophorea is a class of ciliates in the subphylum Intramacronucleata. . It was first resolved in 2004 and comprises three orders: Metopida, Clevelandellida, and Armophorida. Previously members of this class were thought to be heterotrichs beca ...

, form a major clade of obligate anaerobes within the SAL group ( Spirotrichea, Armophorea, and

Litostomatea The Litostomatea are a class of ciliates. The group consists of three subclasses: Haptoria, Trichostomatia and Rhynchostomatia. Haptoria includes mostly carnivorous forms such as '' Didinium'', a species of which preys primarily on the ciliate ' ...

). Muranotrichea are medium to large, elongated holotrichous ciliates with contractile body and somatic ciliature composed of dikinetids. Their oral ciliature includes an elongated key-hole shaped peristome, an adoral zone of membranelles spiraling rightward around distinctly neck-like anterior body part; and heteromorphic paroral membrane . They inhabit micro-oxic marine to brackish sediments and host prokaryotic ectosymbionts and endosymbionts. The class contains a single order Muranotrichida and family Muranotrichidae. Muranotrichidae include two species, ''Muranothrix'' ''gubernata'' and ''Thigmothrix strigosa''. Muranotrichea together with

was described by Rotterova et al. in 2020.

References

Intramacronucleata Ciliate classes {{Ciliate-stub