Kingdom Protista

1. Kingdom Protista Ally Bo, Tony Wang, and Ben Szurek

2. What is a Protista? • To be a protist, an organism must be Eukaryotic • This means to have a nucleus that contains the organisms DNA • Cells are larger than archaea and bacteria

3. Physical Features of Protista • Can be single-celled, multicellular, or colonial • Size ranges from microscopic to very large • Can look like animals, plants or fungi, but are usually simpler and smaller • Cell Walls differ based on the species • The kingdom is divided into three broad categories

4. Types of Protista?

5. Examples of Phyla • Rhizopoda- Rhizopods, Have and use foot like appendages to move and feed, animal like (Ex. Amoeba) • Rhodophyta- Red Algae, Multi-cellular, photosynthetic, live in salt water, contains red pigment, plant like (Ex. Coralline Algae)

6. Examples of Phyla • Apicomplexa- Sporozoans, Parasites than move by • Body flexion or gliding. Cause diseases in birds and humans, animal like (Ex. Plasmodium)

7. Examples of Phyla • Ciliophora- Ciliates, possess many short hair type things called • Paramecium • Cilia, use them for feeding and movement, animal like (Ex. Paramecium)

8. Protista’s Advantages over other Kingdoms • -Microscopic, hard for predators to find • -Don’t need much food, only need sunlight for photosynthesis (except animal like Protista) • -Some create diseases in creatures from other Kingdoms • -Some Protista are extremely tough • -Protists are very diverse, and the whole Kingdom Protista contains various features of all the other Kingdoms

9. What if the Earth didn’t have the Protista Kingdom • -Without zooflagellates (type of Protista) termites would not be able to survive. Zooflagellates play a vital role in helping the termites digest the wood they eat • - Algae produces 80% of the world’s oxygen. Algae is made by protists • -Green algae was an ancestor to many modern plants • -Red algae provides many products like ice cream, and dried red algae is used to roll seaweed