Protista

PROTISTA Protista are a group of mostly simple organisms, called protists, which have characteristics of both plants and animals. Most protists are “unicellular” and can only be seen with a microscope, although there are some that are composed of more than one cell. There are a wide variety of protists, and they live in many different environments, such as fresh water, seawater, soils, and the intestinal tracts of animals, where they perform crucial digestive processes. …

…also. The plantlike protists include the golden algae (phylum Chrysophyta), dinoflagellates (Pyrrophyta), cryptomonads (Cryptophyta), and euglenoids (Euglenophyta). The animal like protists, which are also called protozoa, include the animal flagellates (Zoomastigina), amoeboid forms (Sarcodina), ciliates and suctorians (Ciliophora), and the parasitic, spore-producing sporozoans (Sporozoa). Fungus-like forms include the hyphochytrids (Hyphochytridiomycota) and the plasmodiophores (Plasmodiophoromycota). The slime molds, which include several disputed phyla here treated as belonging to the Protista, have characteristics of both fungi and