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
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chart (2)