Kingdom Protista: Unicellular Algae

image from the web

Kingdom Protista (eukaryotic) include most unicellular (one cell) organisms that do not belong in the other kingdoms, and they mostly live in water. A few can be found in wet soil and even on the human body.  This lifeform is more complex than those from Kingdom Monera as protista have a nucleus. Protista are interesting in that they can act like plants, animals, or fungus.  They tend to be green, like a plant, but they also have movable body parts which allows them to move around to find food in their environment, like an animal.  

Factoids:
~seaweed is an algae that grows in the ocean.
~if an amoeba is cut in half only the half with the nucleus in it would survive, the other half would die.
~malaria is caused by Palsmodium falciparum (protista).
Protista are psuedopods which is the Greek word for false feet.
~Protista cause diseases in humans.

Examples of protista include paramecium, euglena, diatom, amoeba, and some algae are also included.

Amoeba-image from the web

You can read an article from January 26, 2014 about how scientists are studying the causes of Alzheimer disease through use of a single-celled amoeba.

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Protista
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