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Cercozoa were only recently recognized as a monophyletic group (1997) and were named cercozoa in 1998. Cercozoa are now known to be one of the most diverse, speciose and ecologically important of all protozoan phyla and include the majority (not all) of eukaryotes with filose pseudopods or cilia that glide on surfaces instead of swimming (Cavalier-Smith and Chao 2003). Cercozoa them selves are a very undiscovered phyla, it is likely that many other obscure protists will turn out to be cercozoans with further study.
Subphylum Filosa (filose) is one of the best known cercozoans, filose amoebaes with shells of siliceous scales or plates, which are commonly found in soils, nutrient rich waters and on aquatic plants.
Cercozoa has shown a variety of forms, which has made them difficult to define in means of structural characteristics, but by genetic studies their unity is strongly supported.
Subphylum Endomyxa (reticulose), strange amoebae that form a reticulating net. They are set apart by the presence of chloroplasts, which apparently developed from an ingested green alga. They are bound by four membranes and still possess a vestigial nucleus, called a nucleomorph. As such, they have been of great interest to researchers studying the endosymbiotic origins of organelles.
There are also some free-living Cercozoans that do not fit into either of these two categories. Cercozoa is very diverse, unclassified and undiscovered.
All cercozoans are heterotrophic and lack a mouth; they can feed with generally the entire cell. Cercozoans are predatory and parasitic. The filose cercozoans are more likely to feed using pseudopods while the reticulose are more likely to enslave a plant to photosynthesize nutrients for the cercozoan. Free-living cercozoa feed on fungi, algae, other protozoa, bacteria, and even microscopic animals.
Cercozoa move differently depending on the type. Although some common movements include gliding across a surface with axipoda pseudopodssupported by cilia microtubes. Another common form is with the use of flagella.
Cercozoa are decomposers, they help break down was
Protozoans can reproduce asexually through