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Author: Biology Junction Team
Protists
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Exploring Protists
Domain Eukarya; Kingdom Protista
There are many types of protists, but organisms in this kingdom only have a few things in common:
| They are eukaryotes – organisms that have cells with a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles. | They typically live in aquatic or moist environments. | Most protists are unicellular (made of only one cell) but they may live in colonies. | But there are some protists are are multicellular (containing more than one cell) |
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1. Are protists prokaryotes or eukaryotes?
2. What is a eukaryote?
3. What type of environment would you typically find protists living?
4. Are all protists unicellular? yes or no
5. What are unicellular protists that live together in clusters called?
Obtaining Food / Nutrition / Energy
Protists have a few different methods of obtaining nutrition (food):
- Some contain chloroplasts (green pigments) like plants, and are autotrophs. Autotrophs can use photosynthesis to make their own food, for example Algae.
- Then there are others that are heterotrophs and obtain their food by absorbing it from their surroundings, for example Paramecium.
- But there are some that can do both autotrophic and heterotrophic methods of obtaining food, for example Euglena.
6. How do the heterotroph protists obtain their food?
7. How do the autotroph protists get their food? Name the process.
8. What is an example of a protist that can do both autotrophic and heterotrophic methods of obtaining food?
9. What is an example of a protist that absorbs their food?
10. What is an example of a protist that makes their own food?
Classifying Protists
Protists are classified by how they obtain food. Protists are organized into three main groups:
- Animal – like protists (heterotrophs)
- Plant/Algal – like protists (autotrophs)
- Fungal – like protists (heterotroph decomposers)
11. How are protists classified?
Animal – Like Protists – Protozoa
Animal – like protists are often called Protozoa. Scientists classify them by the way they move around.
- Most are unicellular and microscopic. You can see them using a compound light microscope.
- They are classified as heterotrophs because they absorb their food using vacuoles for digestion.
- These are typically found in freshwater, marine, and moist land habitats.
12. What are the animal-like protists often called?
13. How do they obtain their food / energy?
14. How are they classified?
15. Go to http://blog.microscopeworld.com/2012/04/amoeba-under-microscope.html and DRAW and LABEL an amoeba.
Methods of Protozoa movement:
| Cilia | small hair-like projections all around the organism |
| Flagella | long, thin, whip-like structure |
| Pseudopodia | “false feet” – temporary extensions of a cell’s cytoplasm that help them move around and change their shapes to absorb their food |
| Parasites | move along with the host they invaded |
16. What is the method of movement that uses a long, whip-like tail?
17. What is the method of movement that uses “false feet”?
18. What are cilia?
19. Go to http://www.eastcentral.edu/common/depts/bi/protistans.php and DRAW and LABEL the paramecium.
Types of Protozoa:
| Phylum Sarcodina | Phylum Ciliophora | Phylum Zoomastingina | Phylum Sporozoa |
| Common Name – Sarcodines | Common Name – Ciliates | Common Name – Zooflagellates | Common Name – Sporozoan |
| Move by using Pseudopodia | Move by using Cilia | Move by using Flagella | Adults do not move |
Example: Amebas  |
Example: Paramecium |
Example: Trypanosoma (causes African Sleeping Sickness)  |
Example: Plasmodium (causes Malaria) |
20. What is an example of a protozoa that uses a flagella for movement?
21. What type of protist phylum uses cilia?
Plant/Algal – Like Protists
Plant/Algal-like protists are eukaryotes that are similar to plants. Scientists classify these protists by the color of their pigments.
- They are autotrophic and use chlorophyll and other pigments to harvest and use energy from sunlight. They produce oxygen for our environment.
- They are not considered plants because they do not have true roots, stems or leaves and most have flagella for movement at some time in their life cycles.
- The Giant Kelp or seaweed are also in this group of algae.
| Green Algae | Brown Algae | Red Algae | Diatoms | Dinoflagellates | Golden Algae | Euglena |
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22. What are plant/algal-like protists similar to?
23. How are they classified?
24. How do they obtain food/energy? autotroph or heterotroph?
25. What do they do for the environment?
26. Why are they not plants?
27. Why are diatoms and dinoflagellates so important? (Use the web to research this question)
28. Giant kelp are called what?
29. Red algae produce what substance used as a culture media in lab? (Use the web to research this question)
Fungal – Like Protists
Fungal-like protists are multicellular eukaryotes that are absorptive heterotrophs.
- The job of fungal-like protists are decomposers breaking down dead organic matter. They improve the quality of dirt by putting nutrients back into the ground.
- They are most commonly known as the slime molds or water molds. Do not confuse these with the mold you see growing on food or bread.
30. Are fungal-like protists unicellular OR multicellular?
31. How do they obtain their food?
32. What is the job of the fungal-like protists?
33. Give two examples of a fungal-like protist.
Protists – Review
Click on the box you choose for the correct answer for each question.
34. Protists are
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35. Animal-like protists are often called
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36. Animal-like protists are classified by
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37. Plant/Algal-like protists are
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38. Plant/Algal-like protists are classified by
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39. Fungal-like protists help the environment by
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Protozoan
| Protozoa Animal like Protists All Materials © Cmassengale |
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Characteristics:
- Eukaryotes
- Found in kingdom Protista
- Most are unicellular
- Heterotrophs that ingest small food particles & digest it inside food vacuoles containing digestive enzymes
- Classified by the way they move (cilia, flagella, pseudopodia…)
- Microscopic in size
- 65,000 identified species with almost half extinct
- Found in freshwater, marine, and moist terrestrial habitats
- Make up part of the zooplankton & serve as food for animals in marine & freshwater systems
- First seen by Leeuwenhoek in 1675
- Many species are free living
- Some species are parasitic living in the bloodstream of their host & cause malaria, amebic dysentery, or giardiasis
- Many serve as food for other organisms in aquatic habitats; called zooplankton
Reproduction:
- All reproduce asexually by binary fission (single protozoan divides into two individuals)
- Some species reproduce by multiple fission producing more than two individuals
- Some species reproduce sexually by conjugation (opposite mating strains join & exchange genetic material)
Adaptations:
- Eyespots in some protozoans can detect changes in light
- Many can form harden covering called cyst when conditions become unfavorable (no water, pH or temperature changes, nutrient deficiency, decreased oxygen supplies…)
- Metabolic activity of protozoans resumes when conditions become favorable again
- Some protozoans can detect & avoid obstacles and harmful chemicals in their environment
- Freshwater protozoa have contractile vacuoles to pump out excess water
Classification:
- Divided into 4 phyla based on their method of movement — Sarcodina, Ciliophora, Zoomastigina, & Sporozoa
- Found in the kingdom Protista along with algae, slime molds, & water molds
- Sarcodinians move by extending their cytoplasm or pseudopodia (fingerlike projections of the cytoplasm)
- Zooflagellates move by whip like flagella
- Ciliophorans or ciliates move by hair like cilia move
- Sporozoans are nonmotile
| Phylum | Common Name | Locomotion | Type of Nutrition | Examples |
| Sarcodina | sarcodines | pseudopodia | heterotrophic; some parasitic |
Amoeba Radiolaria Naegleria |
| Ciliophora | ciliates | cilia | heterotrophic; some parasitic |
Paramecium Tetrahymena Balantidium |
| Zoomastigina | zooflagellates | flagella | heterotrophic; some parasitic |
Trypanosoma Leishmania Giardia Trichonympha |
| Sporozoa | sporozoans | (None in Adults) | heterotrophic; some parasitic |
Plasmodium Toxoplasma |
Protozoan Evolution:
- First eukaryotic organism thought to have evolved about 1.5 billion years ago
- Protozoans possible evolved from the 1st eukaryotes by Endosymbiosis
- Endosymbiosis – process where one prokaryote lives inside another becoming dependent upon each other
Phylum Sarcodina:
- Includes hundreds of species of amebas
- Found in freshwater, marine, & moist soil habitats
- Usually reproduce asexually
- Their cytoplasm consists of clear, outer ectoplasm and granular, inner endoplasm
- Move by extending cytoplasm (cytoplasmic streaming)
- Cytoplasm extensions are called “false foot” or pseudopods
- Pseudopods form when the inner cytoplasm or endoplasm pushes the outer cytoplasm or ectoplasm forward to make a blunt, armlike extension
- Ameba move by cytoplasmic streaming to produce pseudopods; process called ameboid movement
- Sarcodines also use their pseudopods for feeding by surrounding & engulfing food particles & other protists; called phagocytosis
- Food is surrounded by a pseudopod & then this part of the cell membrane pinches together forming a food vacuole; called endocytosis
- Cytoplasmic enzymes enter the food vacuole & digest the food
- Undigested food & wastes leave by exocytosis
- Most Sarcodinians have contractile vacuoles to pump out excess water
- Oxygen & carbon dioxide diffuse through the cell membrane
- Sarcodinians may form hard, protective, inactive cysts when conditions become unfavorable (drought, lack of nutrients, heat…)
- React to stimuli such as light
- Some Sarcodinians have hard shells called the test made of silica or calcium carbonate
- Radiolarians found in warm, marine waters have a test made of silica & have sticky pseudopodia to trap food
- Marine Foraminiferans have a test made of calcium carbonate with holes through which pseudopodia extend
- Foraminiferan tests build up and form limestone or chalk (e.g. White Cliffs of Dover)
- Important food source in marine habitats
- Entameba histolytica cysts in untreated water supplies cause amebic dysentery which can be fatal
Phylum Ciliophora:
- Called ciliates because they move by short, hairlike cilia lining the cell membrane
- Cilia may be modified into teeth, paddles, or feet
- Largest group of protozoans
- Most found in freshwater, but some are marine
- Called plankton & serve as a food source
- Form protective cysts to survive unfavorable conditions
- Members include the Paramecium, Vorticella, & Stentor
- Have 2 types of nuclei — smaller micronuclei & larger macronuclei
- Macronucleus controls asexual reproduction by mitosis
- Can reproduce sexually by conjugation (two paramecia join together & exchange DNA)
- Gases diffuse across cell membrane
Stentor:
- Trumpet shaped protozoan with cilia around the top
- Attaches to feed & then detaches to swim around
Vorticella:
- Cup shaped protozoan with cilia at the top
- Has a coiled stalk to raise & lower the organism
- Can attach to surfaces
Paramecium caudatum:
- Slipper shaped protozoan found in freshwater
- Clear, elastic covering of cell membrane called pellicle
- Pellicle made of protein for protection
- Use cilia to swim & obtain food (algae & bacteria)
- Have 2 contractile vacuoles to pump out excess water
- Cilia sweep food into oral groove where mouth located at the bottom
- Food enters short tube called gullet into food vacuoles where it’s digested
- Wastes leave through anal pore
- Have trichocysts (tiny, toxic darts to help capture prey or anchor to a surface)
- Respond to light & learn by trial & error
- Reproduce asexually by mitosis & sexually by conjugation
Phylum Zoomastigina:
- Called Zooflagellates because have one or more whiplike flagella to move
- Flagella made of bundles of microtubules
- May be freshwater or marine
- Some are parasites such as Trypanosoma that destroy red blood cells & causes fatal African sleeping sickness
- Trichonympha lives symbiotically inside termites & digests cellulose
Phylum Sporozoa:
- Adult sporozoans have no structures for movement
- Form spores
- Most are parasitic using one or more hosts
- Immature sporozoans are called sporozoites & live in body fluids of hosts
- Plasmodium is transmitted by mosquitoes & causes malaria
- Plasmodium sporozoites enter the bloodstream, travel to the liver, divide & form spores called merozoites
- Merozoites attack red blood cells & later form eggs & sperm that fertilize
- New sporozoites migrate to the salivary glands of mosquitoes where they can be passed on to another person
- Malaria can be controlled by controlling mosquito populations & it is treated with a drug called quinine derived from the Cinchona Tree
Pterosaur Reconstruction Bi
| Pterosaur Reconstruction |  |
Introduction:
A common sight during the Cretaceous period was the soaring through the air of a large fur-covered creature called the pterosaur. Pterosaur means flying lizard. Wings of some pterosaurs were longer than the wings of a small plane. This creature lived on cliffs at the edge of lagoons and would sail from its nest to catch prey. The bones of one pterosaur, Scaphognathus crassirostris, were discovered in 1826 by the German scientist, August Goldfuss. The fossilized bones were located in a limestone quarry and were unbroken. Scaphognathus crassirostris was approximately the size of a large bat with a broad jaw and short tail.
Objective:
Students will reconstruct the skeleton of S. crassirostris and draw conclusions about its method of movement, feeding habits, and other adaptations.
Materials:
Scissors, tape, construction paper, glue, metric ruler, pencil
Fossil Cast of S. crassirostris
Procedure:
- Use the drawings of S. crassirostris bones to cut out and reassemble a model of the flying reptile.
- Glue the model bones to a sheet of construction paper being sure to center the model and keep all bones on the paper.
- Use the metric ruler to measure the complete wingspan of the organism (tip to opposite tip).
- Complete the characteristics in data table 1.
Data:
Table 1
| Characteristics of S. crassirostris | |
| Wingspan (centimeters)? | |
| Jaw Shape? | |
| Teeth adapted for? | |
| Arms & hands adapted for? | |
| Number of bones in lower arm? | |
| Number of bones making up skull? | |
| Number of fingers? | |
| Finger adaptations? | |
Questions:
- The bones of the lower arm and lower leg are fused (joined together). How might this be an adaptation for flight?
- What would be the main function of the long bones of S. crassirostris little finger?
- Noting the shape of the teeth and where S. crassirostris lived, what did it probably eat?
- Name 3 characteristics that adapted S. crassirostris to flight.
- The bones of S. crassirostris were hollow. How was this an adaptation?
- The flap of skin that made up the wing of S. crassirostris was very delicate and could tear easily. How could this cause a problem with S. crassirostris competing with other gliding reptiles?
Pumpkin Decorating Contest
| Pumpkin Decorating Contest Sponsored by SHS Biology Club |
Rules:
Any Club, group, or individuals may enter one or more decorated pumpkins
Cost to enter a pumpkin is $3.00 (pay to Ms. Massengale)
Pumpkins may be painted but not cut
Decorated pumpkins must be set up in the library by Monday, October 26
Prizes:
Winning club, group, or individuals will be awarded a cash prize collected from the $3.00 entry fee
An article with picture will be published in the newspaper & school annual for the winning group
Judging:
The Biology Club will judge the pumpkins before school on October 27
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