Chytridiomycota is a phylum in the kingdom Fungi. The name is derived from the Greek chytridion, meaning "little pot", describing the structure containing unreleased zoospores. In older classifications, chytrids (except the recently established order Spizellomycetales) were placed in the class Phycomycetes under the subphylum Myxomycophyta of the kingdom Fungi. Previously, they were placed in the Mastigomycotina as the class Chytridiomycetes. Also, in an older and more restricted sense (not used here), the term "chytrids" referred just to those fungi in the order Chytridiales. Here, the term “chytrid” will refer only to members of Chytridiomycota. The chytrids have also been included among the Protoctista, but are now regularly classed as fungi. Chytrids are one of the early diverging fung