Rhizopoda
/ˌrʌɪzəˈpəʊdə
/ /rʌɪˈzɒpədə/plural noun Zoology
A phylum of single-celled animals which includes the amoebas and their relatives, which have extensible pseudopodia.For a brief period before 1998, the clade soon to be called Cercozoa was referred to as Rhizopoda, as it included a large proportion of the species previously included in that form-taxon (specifically those bearing filose pseudopodia)....
- For convenience, earlier protist classifications placed all amoebae possessing lobose pseudopodia in the class Lobosea, belonging to the superclass or phylum Rhizopoda.
Derivatives
rhizopod
- Warren conveys Leidy's boundless curiosity for the microworld by quoting a characteristic remark: ‘How can life be tiresome,’ Leidy asked, ‘so long as there is still a new rhizopod undescribed?’
- But as many rhizopods were not in this group, including the best-known example, Amoeba, and many Cercozoa are flagellates rather than amoeboid, the name Cercozoa is much more welcome.
- This strongly suggests that these tRNAs are edited by a mechanism similar to the one seen in the fungus Spizellomyces punctatus and the rhizopod amoeba Acanthamoeba castellanii.
Origin
Modern Latin (plural), from rhizo- 'root' + Greek pous, pod- 'foot'.