Pelobiont

From Free net encyclopedia

(Redirected from Pelobionts)

{{Taxobox | color = khaki | name = Pelobionts | regnum = Protista | phylum = Amoebozoa | ordo = Pelobiontida | ordo_authority = Page 1976</small> | subdivision_ranks = Genera | subdivision = Pelomyxa
Mastigamoeba
Mastigella
Mastigina }} The pelobionts are a small group of amoebozoa. The most notable member is Pelomyxa, a giant amoeba with multiple nuclei and inconspicuous non-motile flagella. The other genera, called mastigamoebae, are often uninucleate, have a single anterior flagellum used in swimming, and produce numerous determinate pseudopodia.

Pelobionts are closely related to the entamoebids and like them have no mitochondria; in addition, pelobionts also do not have dictyosomes. At one point these absences were considered primitive. However, molecular trees place the two groups with other lobose amoebae in the phylum Amoebozoa, so these are secondary losses.