Higher-Level Taxonomy & Evolution Codexery

Myxogastria

A class of slime molds with multinucleate plasmodia and fruiting bodies.

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All species pass through microscopic individual cells, slimy visible organisms, and conspicuously shaped fruit bodies.[1] The class Myxogastria, also referred to as Myxomycetes, encompasses 888 species distributed across 5 orders, 14 families, and 62 genera.[2] Despite being a single cell, these organisms can achieve dimensions of up to 1 meter in width and a mass of up to 20 kilograms.[1]

Scientific classification

  1. CladeEukaryota
  2. PhylumAmoebozoa
  3. ClassMyxogastria

Named by T. Macbr. (1899)

Sources: Wikipedia taxobox: Myxogastria (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Quick Facts

Species count
888 species (with estimates of 1200–1500 based on environmental samples)

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

Among 1012 taxa, only 446 species were common in several locations with over 20 discoveries.[3] Lindsay Shepherd Olive first coined the term Myxogastria in 1970, basing it on the family Myxogastridae that Thomas Huston Macbride had established in 1899.[4] The term Myxomycota is derived from the Ancient Greek words μύξα (myxa), signifying "mucus", and μύκης (mykes), signifying "fungus".[4] Due to conflicting evidence from molecular and developmental studies, the phylogenetic position of Myxogastria remains unresolved, with some researchers advocating for its classification as a separate kingdom.[5]

The evolutionary relationships connecting the different orders within myxogastrids remain uncertain.[5]

What the research sources say

Certain Diptera species from Mycetophilidae, Sciaridae, and Drosophilidae have evolved to specialize on Myxogastria.[6][7][8] The "Myxomycetes of Britain and Ireland" handbook states that the plasmodium or parts of fruit bodies can be smaller than one millimeter.[1][9] According to the "Handbuch der Zoologie", as of 2012 the connections between Myxogastria and other organisms had not been extensively investigated.[6][7][8] The same handbook identifies a wide range of arthropods—including mites, springtails, and numerous beetle families such as rove beetles and round fungus beetles—along with various nematodes, as natural predators of Myxogastria.[6][7][8]

That handbook further reports that in exceptional instances, fruit bodies can reach a size of one square meter and a weight of 20 kilograms.[1][9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Myxogastria" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ing, "The Myxomycetes of Britain and Ireland: An identification handbook", Richmond Pub. Co., 1999, p. 4 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Myxogastria" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Baldauf, "Origin and evolution of the slime molds (Mycetozoa)", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, October 1997, p. 12007–12012; "Dictionary of the Fungi", CABI, 2008, p. 765 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Myxogastria" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Diversity, Nomenclature, and Taxonomy of Protists", Systematic Biology, 2007, p. 684–689 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Myxogastria" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Olive, "The Mycetozoa: A revised classification", The Botanical Review, January 1970, p. 59–89; Hermann Neubert, Wolfgang Nowotny, Karlheinz Baumann, Heidi Marx, – : "Die Myxomyceten Deutschlands und des angrenzenden Alpenraumes unter besonderer Berücksich (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Myxogastria" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Higher-order phylogeny of plasmodial slime molds (myxogastria) based on elongation factor 1-A and small subunit rRNA gene sequences", The Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 2005, p. 201–210 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Myxogastria" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Handbuch der Zoologie: eine Naturgeschichte der Stämme des Tierreiches", Walter de Gruyter, 19 September 2005; "Handbuch der Zoologie: eine Naturgeschichte der Stämme des Tierreiches", Walter de Gruyter, 19 September 2005; "Handbuch der Zoologie: eine Naturgeschichte der Stämme des Tierreiches", Walter de Gruyter, 19 September 2005; "Handbuch der Zoologie: eine Naturgeschichte der Stämme des Tierreiches", Walter de Gruyter, 19 September 2005; "Handbuch der Zoologie: eine Naturgeschichte der Stämme des Tierreiches", Walter de Gruyter, 19 Se en.wikipedia.org
  7. Open Library record, ISBN 3110171309 ("Handbuch der Zoologie: Volume 4/2: Insecta: Coleoptera, Beetles: Volume 1"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
  8. Open Library record, ISBN 9783110190755 ("Handbook of zoology"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
  9. Open Library record, ISBN 9780855462512 ("The myxomycetes of Britain and Ireland"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Myxogastria (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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