User:Pooja srivastava/E-Museum/Protozoa

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Characterstics of Protozoans

  • Protozoa are microscopic animals.
  • Protozoans are unicellular eukaryotic organisms and many of them are motile in nature.
  • Commonly range from 10 to 52 micrometers, but can grow as large as 1 mm, and are seen easily by microscope.
  • Body is naked or covered by pellicle( a thin layer supporting the cell membrane).
  • The cytoplasm is differentiated into outer ectoplasm and inner endoplasm.
  • Locomotry organ may be pseudopodia, cilia or flagella in different organisms.
  • Nutrition may be holophytic, hollozoic,saprozoic or parasitic.
  • Respiration occurs by diffusion through body surface.
  • Reproduction by both:-sexual or asexual .Sexual reproduction takes place by the process of conjugation( or syngamy).
  • They are found in 2 modes of life-Free Living, found in fresh and salt water and Parasitic, found as endoparasites on other animals.
  • Protozoa exist throughout aqueous environments and soil, occupying a range of trophic levels.


some common examples of protozoa