Penard Labs

The Fascinating World of Amoebae
Amoebozoa Lühe 1913, emend. Cavalier-Smith 1998
Cells naked or testate, uni-, bi- and multinucleate, cysts common, sexual or asexual, pseudopodia of the lobopodia type.

1. Tubulinea Smirnov et al. 2005
Tubular, sub cylindrical pseudopodia or capable of altering the locomotive form from a flattened, expanded one to a sub cylindrical one. Monoaxial flow of the cytoplasm in every pseudopodium or in the entire cell.

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Amoeba proteus Tubulinea

2. Discosea (Cavalier-Smith et al. 2004) Smirnov et al. 2008
Flattened naked amoebae that never produce tubular, sub cylindrial pseudopodia and never alter their locomotive form. Cytoplasmic flow polyaxial or without a pronounced axis. Subpseudopodia short or absent.

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Discosea Korotnevella Paramoeba

3. Variosea Cavalier-Smith 2004, emend. Smirnov 2011

Aerobic ciliated amoebae with conical microtubular cytoskeleton and only temporary pointed pseudopodia or non-ciliate amoebae with long, tapering, usually pointed, often branched subspseudopodia.

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Arboramoeba Variosea

4. Archamoebae Cavalier-Smith 1983
Anaerobic or microaerobic mostly ciliated amoebae with reduced mitochondrial organelles and endosymbiotic bacteria. Amoeboid movement with eruptive lobopodia. Free-living or endobiotic.

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Pelomyxa Archamoeba