Myxogastria
| Myxogastria | |
|---|---|
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| Badhamia utricularis | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Phylum: | Amoebozoa |
| Infraphylum: | Mycetozoa |
| Class: |
Myxogastria Macbride, 1899 |
| Orders | |
| Synonyms | |
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Myxogastria/Myxogastrea (myxogastrids, ICZN) or Myxomycetes (ICBN), is a grouping of slime molds that contains 5 orders, 14 families, 62 genera and 888 species. They are colloquially known as the plasmodial or acellular slime moulds.
All species pass through several, very different morphologic phases, such as microscopic individual cells, slimy amorphous organisms visible with the naked eye and conspicuously shaped fruit bodies. Although they are monocellular, they can reach immense widths and weights: in extreme cases they can be up to 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) across and weigh up to 20 kilograms (44 lb).
The class Myxogastria is distributed worldwide, but it is more common in temperate regions where it has a higher biodiversity than in polar regions, the subtropics or tropics. They are mainly found in open forests, but also in extreme regions such as deserts, under snow blankets or underwater. They also occur on the bark of trees, sometimes high in the canopy. These are known as corticolous myxomycetes. Most species are very small.
The Latin name Myxomycota comes from the Ancient Greek words (myxa), which means "mucus", and (myces), which means "fungus". The name Myxogastria was introduced in 1970 by Lindsay Shepherd Olive to describe the family Myxogastridae, which was introduced in 1899 by Thomas Huston Macbride. Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries described numerous slime moulds as Myxogasteres in 1829. Species in the class Myxomycota are colloquially known as plasmodial or acellular slime moulds. Some consider the Myxomycota to be a separate kingdom, with an unsettled phylogeny because of conflicting molecular and developmental data. The relations among Myxogastrid orders are as yet unclear.
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