Polychaos is an
amoeboid
An amoeba (; less commonly spelled ameba or amœba; : amoebas (less commonly, amebas) or amoebae (amebae) ), often called an amoeboid, is a type of cell or unicellular organism with the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and r ...
genus in the
Amoebozoa
Amoebozoa is a major Taxonomy (biology), taxonomic group containing about 2,400 described species of Amoeba, amoeboid protists, often possessing blunt, fingerlike, Pseudopod#Morphology, lobose pseudopods and tubular mitochondrial cristae. In trad ...
group.
Several characters unite the species in this genus. The
pseudopod
A pseudopod or pseudopodium (: 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 filaments and ...
s meld at their bases when the organism is moving, and have dorsal, longitudinal ridges. The nucleus is oval or ellipsoidal.
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.
References
Amoebozoa genera
{{Amoebozoa-stub