Chapter 19 Protists
KEY CONCEPT
Kingdom Protista is the most diverse of all the
kingdoms.
Chapter 19 Protists
19.1 DIVERSITY OF PROTISTS
Chapter 19 Protists
Protists can be animal-like, plantlike, or funguslike.
• Protists: Eukaryotes that are not animals,
plants, or fungi
–
–
–
–
members of the Protista Kingdom
single celled or multicellular
microscopic or very large
reproduce asexually and/or sexually
Chapter 19 Protists
Protists can be animal-like, plantlike, or funguslike.
• Protist are generally divided into three groups
based on how they get their food:
– Animal-like (consume other organisms)
– Plantlike (make own food)
– Funguslike (decompose other organisms)
Chapter 19 Protists
• Animal-like protists consume other organisms.
– heterotrophs
– single-celled
– Not animals because animals are multicellular and
animal like protist are single-celled
Chapter 19 Protists
• Plantlike protists are Make their own food through
photosynthesis (autotroph).
– single-celled, colonial (live together in colonies), or
multicellular (kelp)
– Not plants because they have no roots, stems, or leaves
Chapter 19 Protists
• Funguslike protists decompose dead organisms.
– Heterotrophs.
– can move at some point in their life cycle whereas fungi
cannot.
Chapter 19 Protists
Chapter 19 Protists
Protists are difficult to classify.
• Four of the six Kingdoms are Eukaryotes
– Plant
– Animal
– Fungus
Difficult to classify because
Many are only
distantly related to
– Protista
each other.
Many are more
related to organisms in
other kingdoms.
Chapter 19 Protists
Protists are difficult to classify.
• Protista is often called the junk drawer of the kingdoms.
– Eukaryotes that do not fit into any other kingdom:
- Animal like but not quite an animal
- Plantlike but not quite a plant
- Funguslike but not quite a fungus
Chapter 19 Protists
• Protist classification will likely change.
– Some protists are not closely related.
– Molecular evidence supports reclassification.