Characteristics of Euglenoid

Some characteristics of Euglenoid as Structure, Habitat and Habits, Reserve Food, and Reproduction are as follows:

• Unicellular Euglena and its comparative have both animal and plant characteristics.
• Euglenoids are more advanced than blue-green algae from an evolutionary point of view, for they have a definite easily stained nucleus, and the chlorophyll is not scattered in granules but is localized in chloroplasts as in higher plants. The nuclear envelope persists during division.
• Euglena is very much like protozoans, but it bears chloroplast.
• They are free-living and found in freshwater ponds and ditches or in damp soil.
• Euglena is a more easily available protist for laboratory work.
• Euglenoids are distinguished by the absence of a cell wall, but they do contain flexible pellicles made up of protein.
• All the euglenoids have one or two flagella, by means of which they can swim easily.
• Euglena bears a flagellum put at the anterior end of a cavity.
• They bear a red-pigmented eye spot and a gullet near the base of the flagellum. The pigment in the eye spot is astaxanthin.
•  Some euglenoids are green and holophytic (photoautotrophic) like other plants. Few are non-green and saprobic, like fungi and bacteria. Some capture and ingest the organisms like animals (holotropic).
• Green forms have a saprobic mode in addition to holophytic (i.e. mixotrophic).
• Photosynthetic forms bear many, radiating chloroplasts. The chloroplasts contain pigments like chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and xanthophyll.
• Holotropic or phagotrophic nutrition is absent in Euglena.
• Euglenoids reserve carbohydrates in the form of paramylum chemically distinct from starch and glycogen.
• Reproduction is usually asexual by cell division, but sexual reproduction has been reported in one genus.
• Under favorable conditions, euglenoids reproduce by simple, longitudinal binary fission.
• The flagellum disappears prior to division.
• Most of the species produce cysts having thick stratified membranes with deep red coloration due to the synthesis of haematochrome.
• Besides cyst formation, many non-flagellate cells may get embedded in a common gelatinous sheath resembling a palmella stage.

Examples: Euglena, Phacus, Peranema, Astasia, Trachelomonas.

Biological classification is a scientific plan that consists of arranging organisms into taxonomic groups and subgroups based on their similarities and dissimilarities. The word Biology was first coined by Lamarck and Treviranus in 1802. It is mandatory to classify organisms for numerous reasons. Aristotle was the first scientist to take a step toward the classification of organisms.

Cells are one of the most crucial features of living organisms, as they are the building blocks of life. They perform particular functions. All of these cells join to form a tissue. There are plenty of living organisms present in this world. Mega biodiversity regions are those which are humid and warm because they provide the optimum temperature and nutrients for the development of species. Two kingdom system was proposed by Linnaeus, which includes Plantae and Animalia kingdoms. The five-kingdom system was proposed by R.H Whittaker in 1969 which included Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia kingdoms.