Parablepharismea is a class of free-living marine and

brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...

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

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 ...

, 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 ' ...

), together with the classes

Muranotrichea Muranotrichea is a class of free-living marine anaerobic ciliates, that, together with the classes Parablepharismea and Armophorea, form a major clade of obligate anaerobes within the SAL group ( Spirotrichea, Armophorea, and Litostomatea). Mur ...

and

. Parablepharismea are medium to large, elongated ciliates with navicular outline and holotrichous somatic ciliature composed of dikinetids without postciliodesmata. Their oral ciliature is composed of bipartite paroral membrane and adoral zone of membranelles. They host a thick coat of prokaryotic ectosymbionts and cytoplasmic endosymbionts. They are found in micro-oxic marine to brackish habitats. Parablepharismea may be related to the deep sea Cariacotrichea ciliates. This class contains a single order, Parablepharismida, and family Parablepharismidae. The genus ''Parablepharisma'' includes five species. The genus ''Kahlium'' includes a single species ''K. chlamydophorum'' with segmented paroral area and a twisted posterior.

References

Intramacronucleata Ciliate classes {{Ciliate-stub