Kamera lens is a unicellular, flagellate organism and the only species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of its genus Kamera. Though the species is known for centuries, it is poorly known. Its systematic position within the Eukaryota is unsure.

Anatomy, nutrition and reproduction

Kamera lens is a free-living, swimming, heterotrophic organism. The cell is small (6-7 x 2,5-3 micrometer in average ) and ovate, the base of its both long flagella is below the tip (subapical). A bag or rim at this place is missing. There is only one nucleus

Cell nucleus

In cell biology, the nucleus is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in eukaryotic cells. It contains most of the cell's genetic material, organized as multiple long linear DNA molecules in complex with a large variety of proteins, such as histones, to form chromosomes. The genes within these...

 . Ultrastructural

Ultrastructure

Ultrastructure is the detailed structure of a biological specimen, such as a cell, tissue, or organ, that can be observed by electron microscopy...

 characters are not known.

Kamera lens lives as a saprobiont and can be found in hay infusions too. William Saville Kent reported spore-masses of it in such an infusion in 1880.

Taxonomy and history

The first valid description (as Monas lens) has been published by Otto Friedrich Müller

Otto Friedrich Müller

Otto Friedrich Müller, also Mueller was a Danish naturalist.-Biography:Müller was born in Copenhagen. He was educated for the church, became tutor to a young nobleman, and after several years' travel with him settled in Copenhagen in 1767, and married a lady of wealth.His first important works,...

 in 1773 . William Saville Kent placed it 1880 in the genus Heteromita . Edwin Klebs

Edwin Klebs

Theodor Albrecht Edwin Klebs was a German-Swiss pathologist. He is mainly known for his work on infectious diseases. He is the father of Arnold Klebs.-Life:...

 moved it to Bodo

Bodo (genus)

Bodo is a genus of flagellate protozoan. They are free-living relatives of the parasitic trypanosomes. The most well-known species is Bodo saltans....

in 1892, but this was rejected by H.M. Woodcock, who separated the species 1916 as Heteromastix lens in a genus of its own . His insufficient description has been updated by David J. Patterson

David J. Patterson

David J. Patterson is a taxonomist specializing in the protozoa and the use of taxonomy in biodiversity informatics. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland on the 19th April 1950 to Doris Mary and Samuel Patterson, with one elder brother and a sister . He was educated at Belmont Primary,...

 and Michael Zölffel in 1991, they named the genus Kamera, playing on words with the surviving species epithet . Due lacking ultrastructural or molecularbiological data the species' rank is uncertain, thus it is placed as incertae sedis

Incertae sedis

, is a term used to define a taxonomic group where its broader relationships are unknown or undefined. Uncertainty at specific taxonomic levels is attributed by , , and similar terms.-Examples:*The fossil plant Paradinandra suecica could not be assigned to any...

in the Eucaryota.