The paracercomonads are a group of
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 euk ...
protists
A protist () is any eukaryotic organism (that is, an organism whose cells contain a cell nucleus) that is not an animal, plant, or fungus. While it is likely that protists share a common ancestor (the last eukaryotic common ancestor), the excl ...
.
Taxonomically, they comprise the family Paracercomonadidae, order Paracercomonadida and subclass Paracercomonada. Due to their morphological similarities to the
cercomonads, members of this family were grouped with ''
Cercomonas
Cercomonads are small flagellates, widespread in aqueous habitats and common in soils.
Characteristics
The cells are generally around 10 μm in length, without any shell or covering. They produce filose pseudopods to capture bacteria, but do n ...
'' and similar taxa from the beginning. However, their similarities are due to
convergent evolution
Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...
.
Classification
There are currently 5 genera of paracercomonads:
*''
Brevimastigomonas''
*''
Metabolomonas''
*''
Nucleocercomonas''
*''
Paracercomonas
''Paracercomonas'' is a genus of rhizaria.
It includes the species ''Paracercomonas marina''.
Species
* '' P. ambulans'' Howe & Cavalier-Smith 2009
* '' P. astra'' Howe & Cavalier-Smith 2009
* '' P. baikali'' Howe et al. 2011
* '' P. bassi'' B ...
''
*''
Phytocercomonas''
References
{{Cercozoa-stub
Cercozoa families