Flagellate
The flagellates comprise those Protista that support one or more flagella, whip-like organelles used primarily for locomotion. Originally they were grouped together as the Mastigophora, but the many separate flagellate lines are not particularly related to each other. The ancestral eukaryotes, in fact, may have been flagellates.
The main groups of flagellates that I care to recall at the moment are:
- Retortamonads
- Diplomonads
- Oxymonads
- Parabasalia
- Heterolobosea (amoeboflagellates)
- Euglenozoa (kinetoplastids, euglenids)
- Ebriids
- Ellobiopsids
- Prymnesiophyta (haptophytes, coccolithophores)
- Basal Stramenopiles (golden algae, bicosoecids, etc)
- Jakobids
- Cryptomonads
- Basal Plantae (green algae)
- Choanoflagellates
Flagellate cells also occur in multicellular forms, especially as gametes. Similarities in the structure of flagella give us a good idea of some relationships, for instance, the kinetoplastids and euglenids (euglenozoa) or the Animalia, Fungi, and choanoflagellates.