Protist Systematics

John O Corliss, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA

Published online: April 2001

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0003153

Protist systematics is concerned with the taxonomy or classification of the typically microscopic organisms (above the level of the evolutionarily primitive bacteria) found in abundance nearly everywhere in the Earth's biosphere. Such organisms include the algae, the protozoa, and certain lower fungi.

Keywords: protists; protozoa; algae; lower fungi; eukaryotic microorganisms; animals; plants; classification; taxonomy; megasystematics

 References
    Cavalier-Smith T (1998) A revised six-kingdom system of life. Biological Reviews 73: 203–266.
    book Copeland HF (1956) The Classification of Lower Organisms. Palo Alto, CA: Pacific Books.
    Corliss JO (1984) The kingdom Protista and its 45 phyla. BioSystems 17: 87–126.
    Corliss JO (1986) Progress in protistology during the first decade following reemergence of the field as a respectable interdisciplinary area in modern biological research. Progress in Protistology 1: 11–63.
    Corliss JO (1992) Historically important events, discoveries, and works in protozoology from the mid-17th to the mid-20th century. Revista de la Sociedad Mexicana de Historia Natural 42 (year 1991): 45–81.
    book Corliss JO (1998a) "Classification of protozoa and protists: the current status". In: Coombs GH, Vickerman K, Sleigh MA and Warren A (eds) Evolutionary Relationships Among Protozoa, pp. 409–447. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Academic Publishers.
    Corliss JO (1998b) Haeckel's kingdom Protista and current concepts in systematic protistology. Stapfia 56: 85–104.
    book Corliss JO (2000) "Biodiversity, classification and numbers of species of protists". In: Raven PH and Williams T(eds) Nature and Human Society: the Quest for a Sustainable World, pp. 130–155. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
    book Dobell C (1932) Antony van Leeuwenhoek and His ‘Little Animals’. Amsterdam: Swets and Zeitlinger.
    book Haeckel E (1866) Generelle Morphologie der Organismen, 2 vols. Berlin: Reimer.
    book Haeckel E (1878) Das Protistenreich. Leipzig, Germany: Gunther.
    Hogg J (1860) On the Distinctions of a Plant and an Animal, and on a Fourth Kingdom of Nature. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal (new series) 12: 216–225.
    book Margulis L and Schwartz KV (1998) Five Kingdoms: an Illustrated Guide to the Phyla of Life on Earth, 3rd edn. New York: Freeman.
    book Margulis L, Corliss JO, Melkonian M and Chapman DJ (eds) (1990) Handbook of Protoctista. Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
 Further Reading
    Cavalier-Smith T (1993) Kingdom Protozoa and its 18 phyla. Microbiological Reviews 57: 953–994.
    book Coombs GH, Vickerman K, Sleigh MA and Warren A (eds) (1998) Evolutionary Relationships Among Protozoa. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer.
    Corliss JO (1994) An interim utilitarian (‘user-friendly’) hierarchical classification and characterization of the protists. Acta Protozoologica 33: 1–51.
    book Hausmann K and Hülsmann N (1996) Protozoology, 2nd edn. Stuttgart, Germany: Thieme.
    Knoll AH (1992) The early evolution of eukaryotes: a geological perspective. Science 256: 622–627.
    Lipscomb DL, Farris JS, Källersjö M and Tehler A (1998) Support, ribosomal sequences and the phylogeny of the eukaryotes. Cladistics 14: 303–338.
    proceedings Margulis L (1996) Archaeal-eubacterial mergers in the origin of Eukarya: phylogenetic classification of life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 93: 1071–1076.
    book Patterson DJ (1994) "Protozoa: evolution and systematics". In: Hausmann K and Hülsmann N(eds) Progress in Protistology. Proceedings of the IXth International Congress of Protozoology, July–August 1993, Berlin, pp. 1–14. Stuttgart, Germany: Fischer
    book Patterson DJ and Sogin ML (1993) "Eukaryote origins and protistan diversity". In: Hartman H and Matsuno K(eds) The Origin and Evolution of the Cell, pp. 13–46. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing
    Ragan MA (1997) A third kingdom of eukaryotic life: history of an idea. Archiv für Protistenkunde 148: 225–243.
    Rothschild LJ (1989) Protozoa, Protista, Protoctista: what's in a name? Journal of the History of Biology 22: 277–305.
    Schlegel M (1998) Diversität und Phylogenie der Protisten – aufgedeckt mit molecularen Merkmalen. Stapfia 56: 105–118.
    book Sogin ML and Hinkle G (1997) "Common measures for studies of biodiversity: molecular phylogeny in the eukaryotic microbial world". In: Reaka-Kudla ML, Wilson DE and Wilson EO(eds) Biodiversity II: Understanding and Protecting Our Biological Resources, pp. 109–122. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press.
    Sogin ML, Morrison HG, Hinkle G and Silberman JD (1996) Ancestral relationships of the major eukaryotic lineages. Microbiologia 12: 17–28.

Related Sub-Topics:

Classification | Microbial Evolution and Taxonomy | Algae | Fungi | Protozoa
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Article Title: Protist Systematics
 
How to Cite close
Corliss, John O(Apr 2001) Protist Systematics. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0003153]