This web site aims to provide an user-friendly guide to all known marine benthic ciliated protozoan. It will contain descriptions and images of each species. An updated taxonomy of ciliates will also be supplied. The data it contains are extracted from published materials that is marked up for data mining. To the best of our knowledge, the data are accurate.

Introduction to Ciliophora

Edited by Xiaozhong Hu on Tue, 02/07/2012 - 12:08

The phylum Ciliophora Doflein, 1901 is also known as Ciliata, ciliated protozoa or protists, Infusoria and Animalicules.

The Ciliophora includes about 10000 known species of some of the most complex single-celled organisms ever. They derive their name from the Latin word for "eyelash," which describes the appearance of many ciliates quite well: some or all of the surface of a ciliate is covered with relatively short, dense hairlike structures, the cilia, which beat to propel the ciliate through the water and/or to draw in food particles.

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