Describe General Characteristics of phylum Protozoa 

Subject: Zoology

Difficulty Level: Moderate
Describe General Characteristics of phylum Protozoa 

Updated by: Arabinda Naik

Answer:

Describe General Characteristics of phylum Protozoa

 
1. Kingdom: Protista. 
2. They are known as acellular or non-cellular organism. A protozoan body consists of only mass of protoplasm, so they are called acellular or non-cellular animals. 
3. Habitat: mostly aquatic, either free living or parasitic or commensal
 4. Grade of organization: protoplasmic grade of organization. Single cell performs all the vital activities thus the single cell acts like a whole body. 
5. Body of protozoa is either naked or covered by a pellicle. 
6. Locomotion: Locomotory organ are pseudopodia (false foot) or cilia or absent. 7. Nutrition: Nutrition are holophytic (like plant) or holozoic (like animal) or saprophytic or parasitic. 
8. Digestion: digestion is intracellular, occurs in food vacuoles.
 9. Respiration: through the body surface. 
10. Osmoregulation: Contractile vacuoles helps in osmoregulation. 
11. Reproduction: Asexually reproduction is through binary fission or budding. Sexual reproduction is by syngamy conjugation. 
Examples: Amoeba, Entamoeba, Giardia, Euglena. Trypanosoma, Plasmodium. Monocystis, Paramecium, Vorticella. Balantidium 

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