Category:Unikonts

Not to be confused with Amorphae or Amorpheae. Unikonts or Amorphea are members of a taxonomic supergroup that includes the basal Amoebozoa and Obazoa. That latter contains the Opisthokonta, which includes the Fungi, Animals and the Choanomonada, or Choanoflagellates. The taxonomic affinities of the members of this clade were originally described and proposed by Thomas Cavalier-Smith in 2002.[1][2]

Clade
The group includes eukaryotic cells that, for the most part, have a single emergent flagellum, or are amoebae with no flagella. The unikonts include opisthokonts (animals, fungi, and related forms) and Amoebozoa. By contrast, other well-known eukaryotic groups, which more often have two emergent flagella (although there are many exceptions), are often referred to as bikonts. Bikonts include Archaeplastida (plants and relatives) and SAR supergroup, the Cryptista, Haptista, Telonemia and picozoa.

Taxonomic revisions within this group
Cavalier-Smith has proposed two new phyla: Sulcozoa, which consists of the subphyla Apusozoa (Apusomonadida and Breviatea), and Varisulca, which includes the subphyla Diphyllatea, Discocelida, Mantamonadidae, Planomonadida and Rigifilida.[8] The validity of this proposed taxonomy has yet to be ruled upon by the Society of Protistologists.

Further work by Cavalier-Smith has shown that Sulcozoa is paraphyletic.[9] Apusozoa also appears to be paraphyletic. Varisulca has been redefined to include planomonads, Mantamonas and Collodictyon. A new taxon has been created - Glissodiscea - for the planomonads and Mantamonas. Again, the validity of this revised taxonomy awaits confirmation.

Amoebozoa seems to be monophyletic[10] with two major branches: Conosa and Lobosa. Conosa is divided into the aerobic infraphylum Semiconosia (Mycetozoa and Variosea) and secondarily anaerobic Archamoebae. Lobosa consists entirely of non-flagellated lobose amoebae and has been divided into two classes: Discosea, which have flattened cells, and Tubulinea, which has predominantly tube-shaped pseudopodia.

he evolve from the discoboa