Chromista > Ciliophora > Heterotrichea > Heterotrichida > Nyctotheridae > Opalina

Opalina

Wikipedia Abstract

Opalina is a genus of protozoa found in the intestines of frogs and toads. They lack mouths and contractile vacuoles, they are covered with nearly equal flagelliform cilia, and they have numerous nuclei, all similar. All the species are obligate endosymbionts, most likely commensal rather than parasitic, in cold-blooded vertebrates. Its body is leaflike in shape. They lack cytostomes. They are saprozoic, consuming dead matter, which suggests their commensal role. It undergoes plasmotomy. An example of a species is Opalina ranarum.
View Wikipedia Record: Opalina

Species

External References

Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0