Download The Misfits!

Protists
The Misfits!
Characteristics
• Kingdom: Protista
• Don’t fit anywhere else, so
they’re Protists!
• Mostly single-celled, but some
are multicellular
• Eukaryotic
Protists and Food
• Producers:
– have chloroplasts (green!)
– make food by photosynthesis
• Heterotrophs: can’t make their own food
– Consumers: eat other living things
– Decomposers: eat dead things
– Parasites: invade and harm host to get
food from it
Producing More Protists
• Most reproduce asexually (binary fission)
– Ex: euglena
• Some reproduce sexually by Conjugation
– Ex: paramecium
– Two join and exchange genetic material
by using a small second nucleus
– Separate to make 4 new organisms
Reproductive Cycles
• Some protists have complicated
reproductive cycles
– They may alternate between sexual and
asexual
– They may change forms many times like
Plasmodium Vivax (protist that causes
Malaria)
Life Cycle of Plasmodium Vivax