Euglena – The spindle Organism
Classification of Euglena
| Domain | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom | Protista |
| Superphylum | Discoba |
| Phylum | Euglenozoa |
| Class | Euglenoidea |
| Order | Euglenales |
| Family | Euglenaceae |
| Genus | Euglena |
Characteristics
- Euglena is a large genus having 152 species.
- Euglena is a flagellated organism with no cell wall.
- In contrast to the lack of cell walls in which they resemble animals, euglenas usually have well-defined chloroplasts and store a carbohydrate only slightly different from the starches of higher plants.
- In absence of sunlight and in presence of organic matter they ingest the food like other protozoans. That is why Euglena has been considered a plant by botanists and an animal by zoologists.
- The Euglena, when treated with antibiotic streptomycin or with heat loses its chlorophyll in other words, it can be converted from a plant to an animal.
- It needs special attention when one is searching for an organism that may represent the ancestral type from which plants and animals have evolved.
Euglena is studied as a plant as well as an animal. It is called plant-animal.
Plant Characters of Euglena
- Presence of chloroplasts with chlorophyll.
- Holophytic (photosynthetic) nutrition.
Animal Characters of Euglena
- Presence of pellicle which is composed of proteins and not of cellulose.
- Presence of stigma and paraflagellar body (photosensitive structures).
- Presence of contractile vacuole (not found in plants).
- Presence of longitudinal binary fission.
Euglenoid
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.