Excavata is an extensive and diverse but paraphyletic group of unicellular Eukaryota. The group was first suggested by Simpson and Patterson in 1999 and the name latinized and assigned a rank by Thomas Cavalier-Smith in 2002. It contains a variety of free-living and symbiotic protists, and includes some important parasites of humans such as Giardia and Trichomonas. Excavates were formerly considered to be included in the now obsolete Protista kingdom. They were distinguished from other lineages based on electron-microscopic information about how the cells are arranged. They are considered to be a basal flagellate lineage.
The metamonads are a large group of flagellate amitochondriate microscopic eukaryotes. Their composition is not entirely settled, but they include the retortamonads, diplomonads, and possibly the parabasalids and oxymonads as well. These four groups are all anaerobic, occurring mostly as symbiotes or parasites of animals, as is the case with Giardia lamblia which causes diarrhea in mammals.
Discicristata is a proposed eukaryotic clade. It consists of Euglenozoa plus Percolozoa.
Amorphea is a taxonomic supergroup that includes the basal Amoebozoa and Obazoa. That latter contains the Opisthokonta, which includes the Fungi, Animals and the Choanomonada, or Choanoflagellates. The taxonomic affinities of the members of this clade were originally described and proposed by Thomas Cavalier-Smith in 2002.
In biology, a phylum is a level of classification or taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. Traditionally, in botany the term division has been used instead of phylum, although the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants accepts the terms as equivalent. Depending on definitions, the animal kingdom Animalia contains about 31 phyla, the plant kingdom Plantae contains about 14 phyla, and the fungus kingdom Fungi contains about 8 phyla. Current research in phylogenetics is uncovering the relationships among phyla within larger clades like Ecdysozoa and Embryophyta.
Malawimonadidae is a family of unicellular eukaryotes of outsize importance in understanding eukaryote phylogeny.
Breviata anathema is a single-celled flagellate amoeboid eukaryote, previously studied under the name Mastigamoeba invertens. The cell lacks mitochondria, much like the pelobionts to which the species was previously assigned, but has remnant mitochondrial genes, and possesses an organelle believed to be a modified anaerobic mitochondrion, similar to the mitosomes and hydrogenosomes found in other eukaryotes that live in low-oxygen environments.
Loukozoa is a proposed taxon used in some classifications of eukaryotes, consisting of the Metamonada and Malawimonadea. Ancyromonads are closely related to this group, as sister of the entire group, or as sister of the Metamonada. Amorphea may have emerged in this grouping, specifically as sister of the Malawimonads.
Malawimonas is genus of unicellular, heterotrophic flagellates with uncertain phylogenetic affinities. They have variably being assigned to Excavata and Loukozoa. Recent studies suggest they may be closely related to the Podiata.
SAR or Harosa is a highly diverse clade of eukaryotes, often considered a supergroup, that includes stramenopiles (heterokonts), alveolates, and rhizarians. It is a node-based taxon, including all descendants of the three groups' last common ancestor, and comprises most of the now-rejected Chromalveolata. Their sister group has been found to be telonemids, with which they make up the TSAR clade.
Jakobids are an order of free-living, heterotrophic, flagellar eukaryotes in the supergroup Excavata. They are small, and can be found in aerobic and anaerobic environments. The order Jakobida, believed to be monophyletic, consists of only twenty species at present, and was classified as a group in 1993. There is ongoing research into the mitochondrial genomes of jakobids, which are unusually large and bacteria-like, evidence that jakobids may be important to the evolutionary history of eukaryotes.
Holozoa is a clade of organisms that includes animals and their closest single-celled relatives, but excludes fungi and all other organisms. Together they amount to more than 1.5 million species of purely heterotrophic organisms, including around 300 unicellular species. It consists of various subgroups, namely Metazoa and the protists Choanoflagellata, Filasterea, Pluriformea and Ichthyosporea. Along with fungi and some other groups, Holozoa is part of the Opisthokonta, a supergroup of eukaryotes. Choanofila was previously used as the name for a group similar in composition to Holozoa, but its usage is discouraged now because it excludes animals and is therefore paraphyletic.
Trichosphaerium is a genus of amoebozoan protists that present extraordinary morphological transformations, both in size and shape, during their life cycle. They can present a test that may or may not be covered in spicules. They are related to the family Microcoryciidae, which contains other amoebae with tests, within the clade Corycidia of the phylum Amoebozoa.
Ancyromonadida or Planomonadida is a small group of biflagellated protists found in the soil and in aquatic habitats, where they feed on bacteria. Includes freshwater or marine organisms, benthic, dorsoventrally compressed and with two unequal flagellae, each emerging from a separate pocket. The apical anterior flagellum can be very thin or end in the cell membrane, while the posterior flagellum is long and is inserted ventrally or laterally. The cell membrane is supported by a thin single-layered theca and the mitochondrial crests are discoidal/flat.
Diaphoretickes is a major group of eukaryotic organisms, with over 400,000 species. The majority of the earth's biomass that carries out photosynthesis belongs to Diaphoretickes.
A supergroup, in evolutionary biology, is a large group of organisms that share one common ancestor and have important defining characteristics. It is an informal, mostly arbitrary rank in biological taxonomy that is often greater than phylum or kingdom, although some supergroups are also treated as phyla.
Gefionella is a genus of excavate protists belonging to the family Malawimonadidae, a basal group in the evolution of eukaryotes. It is a monotypic genus, with only the species Gefionella okellyi, described in 2018. The genus is named after the Norse goddess Gefjon, while the species is named after the scientist Charles J. O'Kelly, a pioneer in the ultrastructural and phylogenetic investigation of excavate flagellates.
Stygiellidae is a family of free-living marine flagellates belonging to the order Jakobida, a deep-branching lineage within the eukaryotic supergroup Discoba. They are unicellular organisms that commonly inhabit anoxic, sulfide-rich and ammonium-rich marine habitats worldwide.
Imasa is a genus of marine flagellates containing the single species Imasa heleensis, discovered in 2020 in the Solomon Islands. It is the first marine member of a basal group of eukaryotes known as Malawimonadida. It is the only member of the family Imasidae.
Colponemids are free-living alveolates, unicellular flagellates related to dinoflagellates, apicomplexans and ciliates. They are predators of other small eukaryotes, found in freshwater, marine and soil environments. They do not form a solid clade, but a sparse group of deep-branching alveolate lineages.
