Protists’ Classification

● Protists are eukaryotic organisms, distinguished by the relative complexity

of their cells, meaning they have a nucleus.

Protists are eukaryotes as they possess a nucleus and other

membrane-bound organelles (structures that perform a specific job)

● Protists vary greatly in organization: protists are predominantly unicellular

(single-celled); others are syncytial (essentially a mass of cytoplasm); and
others are multicellular.

The emerging classification scheme groups the entire domain Eukaryota into six
“supergroups” that contain all of the protists as well as animals, plants, and fungi
that evolved from a common ancestor. The supergroups are believed to be
monophyletic, meaning that all organisms within each supergroup are believed to
have evolved from a single common ancestor, and thus all members are most
closely related to each other than to organisms outside that group. Protist
members of this group are classified based on the commonalities and differences
that define the groups themselves.