Flagellate
From Wikinfo
Flagellates are single-celled protists with one or more flagella, whip-like organelles often used for propulsion. Originally they were grouped together as the class or phylum Mastigophora, but the different lines do not appear particularly closely related. These include:
- Retortamonads
- Diplomonads
- Oxymonads
- Parabasalia
- Jakobids
- Heterolobosea (amoeboflagellates, etc)
- Euglenozoa (kinetoplastids, euglenids, etc)
- Ebriids
- Ellobiopsids
- Dinoflagellates
- Haptophytes
- Stramenopiles (golden algae, bicosoecids, etc)
- Cryptomonads
- Green algae
- Choanoflagellates
It is quite possible the ancestral eukaryote was a flagellate, and if not they appeared fairly early on in their development. The animals, fungi, and plants are all derived from various lines of flagellates - something reflected in the presence of flagellate cells in most forms, whose ultrastructure is a useful guide to determining relationships.
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Flagellate" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flagellate, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
