The Komokiacea are a small group of

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 ...

protozoa, considered to be

foraminifera Foraminifera (; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of amoeboid protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell biology), ectoplasm for catching food and ot ...

, though there have been suggestions that they are a separate group, closely related to foraminifera. Komokiacea are rather large organisms, often exceeding 300 micrometers in maximum dimensions. Along with Xenophyophores they dominate the macro- and megabenthic fauna in the

deep sea The deep sea is broadly defined as the ocean depth where light begins to fade, at an approximate depth of 200 metres (656 feet) or the point of transition from continental shelves to continental slopes. Conditions within the deep sea are a combin ...

and are commonly referred to as "giants protists". The komokiacean body consists of a central tube with several branching tubules that contain diffuse protoplasm and numerous waste pellets (stercomata). They often incorporate fine grain material between the tubules. However, in other forms such as that of the genus Lana the body is a loose mass of branching tubules with no centre of organization. Komokiacea serve often as a substrate for benthic meiofaunal organisms such as

, fungi and other deep-sea taxa. They are fragile and often get fragmented during analysis in the laboratory, which leads to a large number of tube fragments difficult to identify. They are commonly abundant in

oligotroph An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments. Oligotrophs are characterized by slow growth, low rates of ...

ic areas and, like other soft-walled foramiferal taxa, they become increasingly important with depth, especially below the

carbonate compensation depth Carbonate compensation depth (CCD) is the depth in the oceans below which the rate of supply of calcite ( calcium carbonate) lags behind the rate of solvation, such that no calcite is preserved. Shells of animals therefore dissolve and carbonate ...

. In terms of diversity approximately 40

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

have been described worldwide. High numbers of morphospecies have been described from the

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

(50), and the North-east subequatorial Pacific (102), which suggests that they are a significant constituent of benthic foraminiferal diversity in the deep sea.

References

Foraminifera superfamilies Monothalamea {{foram-stub