The Protist Kingdom A Look in the Protist Kingdom By: Tyler

In 1676, who knew Antoni van Leeuwenhoek would discover a whole new kingdo with an early telescope?This Dutch scientist found the Protista Kingdom which was made into a kingdom in 1862. The term "protista" was first used by Ernst Haeckel in 1862. Because the organisms in this kingdom shared both animal and plant characteristics, the protist kingdom was made. The organisms in this kingdom are both multinuclear and unineaclear, meaning they can have one or more cells. Some protist are protozoans, wich have the ablity to move, like animal, whereas others are like plants, and use photosynthessis, called filanetous algae. Protist do not have cells organized to specailized tissue.Some protist are ciliates,which use cilia to move, some are flagellates,that use flagella to move, and others are sarcodais, that use pseudopods to move. Protist are usually found in moist areas, such as fresh and salt water, soil, and the intestinal tracts of animals. All protist are eukaryotes, because they have a membrane bounded stucture that encloses the gentic material, also known as nucli. Cilliates have two different sized nucli in a single cell. A protist can have up to 10 million nucli in one cell. The DNA of some protist are organized in long molecules called chromosomes in their nucli. The nuclear membrane stays in tact during mitosis, or a protists way of reproducung by slitting apart, and the chromosomes replicate. Some protist have spores that are reisiant to chemicals and drying in the environment. Protist used to be classified if an had organelles, has cellular stuctures like a protist, and reproduces similar to a protist. Now an organism is classified in the protist kingdom based on its comparison to another protist's cell, its physiology and DNA seqences, which has led to the theory saying that phyla may be to large and diverse to be put in kingdoms.

Protist Links

Mr. Alesse's Protist Page
Natural Perspective
MSN Learning & Reading

My Message to the World