General Information(2):
- Very small, mostly unicellular eukaryotes; though some are colonial and multicellular
- The group is polyphyletic: some protists are more closely related to plants, fungi or animals than they are to other protists
- They are classified in the domain Eukarya: have a nucleus and other membrane-bounded organelles such as mitochondria and the Golgi apparatus
- Exhibit more structural and functional diversity than any other group of eukaryotes
- Unicellular protists perform the same essential functions as the organs of multicellular organisms except they use subcellular organelles
- More nutritionally diverse than other eukaryotic groups: photoautotropic, heterotrophic and mixotrophic