Polychaos is an
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 ...
genus in the
Amoebozoa group.
Several characters unite the species in this genus. The
pseudopod
A pseudopod or pseudopodium (plural: pseudopods or pseudopodia) is a temporary arm-like projection of a eukaryotic cell membrane that is emerged in the direction of movement. Filled with cytoplasm, pseudopodia primarily consist of actin filament ...
s meld at their bases when the organism is moving, and have dorsal, longitudinal ridges. The nucleus is oval or ellipsoid.
Classification
''Polychaos'' includes the following species:
* ''Polychaos annulatum''
(Pénard 1902) Smirnov & Goodkov 1998
* ''
Polychaos dubium
''Polychaos dubium'' is a freshwater amoeboid and one of the larger species of single-celled eukaryote. Like other amoebozoans, ''P. dubium'' moves by means of temporary projections called pseudopods. ''P. dubium'' reportedly has one of the larg ...
''
(Schaeffer, 1916) Schaeffer 1926
* ''Polychaos fasciculatum''
(Penard, 1902) Schaeffer 1926
* ''Polychaos nitidubium''
Bovee, 1970
* ''Polychaos timidum''
Bovee, 1972
Phylogenetic analysis has shown this that genus belongs to the family Hartmannellidae.
[Kamyshatskaya OG, Bondarenko NI, Mesentsev YS, Chistyakova LV, Nassonova ES, Smirnov AV (2020) Molecular phylogeny of ''Polychaos annulatum'' (Amoebozoa, Tubulinea, Euamoebida) shows that genus ''Polychaos'' belongs to the family Hartmannellidae. J Eukaryot Microbiol]
References
Amoebozoa genera
{{Amoebozoa-stub