Macromycetozoa

Taxonomy

To preserve this widely used name, biologist Seungho Kang and his coauthors redefined Eumycetozoa in 2017 to include only one group of protosteloid amoebae, the Protosporangiida (also known as Ceratiomyxomycetes), which are a monophyletic taxon. This usage corresponds to the 1975 hypothesis from Olive that postulates a clade of exclusively fruiting protists that includes myxogastrids, dictyostelids, and some protosteloid amoebae (in this case, the protosporangiids). As of 2019, this renewed definition is accepted by the scientific community and appears in the modern cladistic classification of eukaryotes, revised by the International Society of Protistologists. The name Macromycetozoa was suggested earlier, but Eumycetozoa was chosen for being the oldest term.