Kingdom: Protista

Laboratory Exercise and Notes

The goal of this exercise is to learn about the protists. We will study major phyla and for most of the phyla, we will study representative genera.

For each specimen:

1)      Read the information in The Biology Web for that specimen. Click here to go to the lecture notes on protists.

2)      Create notes. Your notes can be used on the quiz. They should include the following:

a)      Drawing and description

b)      Classification

c)     Significant information (example: life cycle,  commercial value, ecological significance, unusual characteristics, etc.)

Kinetoplastids

Trypanosoma is a zooflagellate that causes African sleeping sickness.

Trypanosoma gambiense img006.jpg (40315 bytes)

Euglenids

Euglena img022.jpg (16000 bytes)

Dinoflagellates

 

A dinoflagellate img016.jpg (24125 bytes)
Peridinium (a dinoflagellate)  peridinium cell wall 1X 400.JPG (41565 bytes)

Ciliates

 

Paramecium caudatum* img004.jpg (22329 bytes)
Conjugation in Paramecium  paramecium multimicronulleatum conjugating X 200.JPG (129993 bytes)
Vorticella img005.jpg (76952 bytes)

Diatoms

 

Mixed diatoms  img015.jpg (42244 bytes)

Brown Algae

 

Fucus, Macrocystis, Nereocystis, Sargassam, Laminaria

Fucus* image3.jpg (36086 bytes)

Fucus* Image4.jpg (65077 bytes)
Sargassam img018.jpg (68581 bytes)
Macrocystis  img019.jpg (61697 bytes)
Nereocystis

img020.jpg (34228 bytes)

nereocystis.jpg (70399 bytes)

Laminarma img021.jpg (37169 bytes)

Foraminiferans

A foraminiferan test (shell)  foraminiferan.jpg (266070 bytes)

Radiolarians

 

Radiolarians  img003.jpg (31795 bytes)

Gymnamoebas

 

Amoeba proteus img002.jpg (35862 bytes)

Plasmodial Slime Molds

 

Physarum polycephalum  Physarum.JPG (370126 bytes)

Red Algae

Some red algae such as Corallina secrete calcium carbonate and may contribute to the development of coral reefs.

Corallina* corallina1.jpg (245566 bytes)
Ceramium  img024.jpg (37214 bytes)

Green Algae

Chlamydomonas is a unicellular green alga.

Click on the photographs below to view enlargements. Click the "Back" button to return here.

Chlamydomonas* img007.jpg (39104 bytes)
Chlamydomonas
showing flagella
img008.jpg (48681 bytes)

Spirogyra is a filamentous form.

Spirogyra* (live) X 40 img009.jpg (79162 bytes)
Spirogyra* (live) X 200  img010.jpg (44750 bytes)

Click here to go to the notes on the Spirogyra life cycle.

Spirogyra conjugation  img011.jpg (103770 bytes)

Volvox is a colonial form.

Volvox* (live) X 100  img012.jpg (45493 bytes)
Volvox* img013.jpg (53225 bytes)

Ulva is multicellular. You will need to remove it from the container.

Ulva img014.jpg (62980 bytes)