Protozoa. Invertebrates. animal Kingdom. Wildlife. Fauna. Zoology. Fauna. Natural Patrimony Aragonese. Aragon. Spain.

Protozoa. Invertebrates. animal Kingdom. Wildlife. Fauna. Zoology.

Aragon > Naturräume in Aragon > Fauna

Protozoa are the simplest animals since they are made up of a single cell.
Therefore, they are unicellular organisms. Through their single cell they perform all vital functions.
Protozoa are very abundant and are found in all places on earth, especially, in humid places. They are frequently parasites on animals, plants and on man, and can cause diseases.

There are about 50,000 species of protozoa and they can live isolated or forming colonies.

Breathing

Respiration is carried out through the cell membrane and by the water particles absorbed with the food.

Pulsatile vacuole

The expulsion of carbon dioxide is done through pulsatile vesicles or vacuoles.

When the pulsatile vacuole is filled with water, it opens and releases it to the outside.

Locomotion

Protozoa move in various ways. The ciliates, like Paramecium, do it through the rhythmic and rapid movement of the cilia.
Other protozoa move through the rapid movement of the flagellum or pseudopods.

Food

Feeding is usually done by capturing food that enters the cytoplasm through an opening in the membrane.
Nutrient vacuoles are formed in the cytoplasm and waste is expelled by fecal vacuoles.
The paramecium sucks the food producing a vortex with the cilia.
Amoebas trap food by surrounding it with the pseudopods they form.

Reproduction

Protozoa can reproduce by bipartition (division in two), by budding (growth of a bud or daughter cell) and by sporulation (fragmentation of the mother cell into spores). When the latter occurs, they can remain embedded in a capsule for a long time.

Different types of Protozoa

Flagellated

The flagellate protozoa or mastigophores are provided with one or more flagella that allow them to move.
They are unicellular, they reproduce by longitudinal division (lengthwise); they live freely and many are parasites that cause diseases, some very serious, especially trichomoniasis, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, leptomoniasis, etc.

The class of flagellates includes the phytoflagellates or dinoilagelates , which are treated in the Plant Kingdom (unicellular algae).

Trypanosoma gambiensis

Trypanosome is the cause of sleeping sickness, and it is transmitted by the tsetse fly. The fly, when biting an infected man, sucks some trypanosomes that multiply in his intestine. Then, when it bites again, it injects the protozoa that reproduce and invade the brain.

Trichomonas

Cause of various diseases, in the mouth, intestine, vagina. etc.

Ciliates

It is the most numerous class of protozoa.
They have cilia in the membrane that they use to move around.
Others have cirrus-like legs.
Many are free, swimmers and others live attached by peduncles that can be wound like a spring.
They live in fresh or marine waters.
Some are parasites in mammalian fish and even in man.
In dry periods they can become encyst.
Among others, Paramecium, Vorticella Stentor, Stilonichia, Balantidium, Mesodinium, etc. can be mentioned.

Suctors or Acinets

They only present cilia in their juvenile stage. As adults they are attached to the substrate by means of a peduncle and have hollow tentacles with suction cups, with which they grasp their victims and suck their juices.

Rhizopods or sarcodins

These protozoa have pseudopods or extensions like feet, to move and catch food.
Some, like the Ameboids, do not have a rigid membrane; others, foraminifera, radiolarians and heliozoans have a siliceous or calcareous skeleton and their pseudopods are radiant in an infinite number of shapes and patterns.
They exist in immense quantities in seas and rivers, forming an important part of plankton.

Sporozoans

They are all parasites that lack locomotor and digestive organs.
They reproduce by resistant spores, and also sexually by producing a zygote.
This type of cyclical reproduction causes some serious diseases, such as tertiary fevers or malaria. caused by Plasmodium.

Malaria Cycle

  1. The female Anopheles mosquito bites the man and inoculates her with Plasmodium sporozoites.
  2. Then, in the liver, they multiply in large numbers.
  3. They then invade the red blood cells,
  4. undergoing another cycle of the disease
  5. When the mosquito bites a patient, it absorbs Plasmodium gametes with its blood, which form another life cycle within its body.


Other information about fauna in Aragón:

A small list of species in Aragon would be the following:

Vertebrates Invertebrates

Mammals

Birds

Reptiles

Amphibians

Fishes

Metazoans

Protozoa

   images about the fauna in Aragon.
   photographs on invertebrates.
   beneficial animals for agriculture.