''Planocarina'' () is a genus of arcellinid

testate amoebae Testate amoebae (formerly thecamoebians, Testacea or Thecamoeba) are a polyphyletic group of unicellular amoeboid protists, which differ from naked amoebae in the presence of a test that partially encloses the cell, with an aperture from which the ...

belonging to the family

Hyalospheniidae Hyalospheniidae is a group of testate amoebae and the sole family of the infraorder Hyalospheniformes. Hyalospheniid testate amoebae are considered important bioindicators, which is why they are frequently used for environmental monitoring and the ...

. It was created in 2016 to agglutinate a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

of species that were previously assigned to the

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

genus ''

Nebela ''Nebela'' is a diverse genus of testate amoebae of cosmopolitan distribution, belonging to the family Hyalospheniidae. They are "prey agglutinated" or "kleptosquamic" organisms, meaning they take the inorganic plates from their prey to construct ...

''. All species of ''Planocarina'' have a compressed keel surrounding the posterior part of their shell. It is the

sister group In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and t ...

of ''

Alabasta ''Alabasta'' () is a genus of arcellinid testate amoebae belonging to the family Hyalospheniidae. It contains species with an elongated test and a strongly curved "pseudostome" (the test opening) with a flare and a notch in narrow view. These spe ...

''.

Morphology

Members of ''Planocarina'' have an elongated, pyriform

test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

with a distinct neck, and lateral margins tapering towards the test opening. The posterior part of the test is surrounded entirely by a flat keel. The test hyaline or slightly yellowish in color, composed of circular and elongated scales recycled from the organism's prey, such as euglyphid testate amoeba.

Classification

''Planocarina'' contains all former species of ''

'' that have a flat keel, with the exception of those that have a lateral horn, which are assigned to '' Cornutheca''. There are 4 species in total: *''

Planocarina carinata ''Planocarina'' () is a genus of arcellinid testate amoebae belonging to the family Hyalospheniidae. It was created in 2016 to agglutinate a clade of species that were previously assigned to the paraphyletic genus ''Nebela''. All species of ''Pla ...

'' (=''Nebela carinata'' ) *''

Planocarina marginata ''Planocarina'' () is a genus of arcellinid testate amoebae belonging to the family Hyalospheniidae. It was created in 2016 to agglutinate a clade of species that were previously assigned to the paraphyletic genus ''Nebela''. All species of ''Pla ...

'' (=''Nebela marginata'' ) *''

Planocarina maxima ''Planocarina'' () is a genus of arcellinid testate amoebae belonging to the family Hyalospheniidae. It was created in 2016 to agglutinate a clade of species that were previously assigned to the paraphyletic genus ''Nebela''. All species of ''Pla ...

'' (=''Nebela maxima'' ) *'' Planocarina spumosa'' (=''Nebela spumosa'' )

References

Tubulinea Amoebozoa genera {{Amoebozoa-stub