Predatory dinoflagellates are predatory heterotroph

Heterotroph

A heterotroph is an organism that cannot fix carbon and uses organic carbon for growth. This contrasts with autotrophs, such as plants and algae, which can use energy from sunlight or inorganic compounds to produce organic compounds such as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins from inorganic carbon...

ic or mixotroph

Mixotroph

A mixotroph is a microorganism that can use a mix of different sources of energy and carbon. Possible are alternations between photo- and chemotrophy, between litho- and organotrophy, between auto- and heterotrophy or a combination of it...

ic alveolate protist

Protist

Protists are a diverse group of eukaryotic microorganisms. Historically, protists were treated as the kingdom Protista, which includes mostly unicellular organisms that do not fit into the other kingdoms, but this group is contested in modern taxonomy...

s that derive some or most of their nutrient

Nutrient

A nutrient is a chemical that an organism needs to live and grow or a substance used in an organism's metabolism which must be taken in from its environment. They are used to build and repair tissues, regulate body processes and are converted to and used as energy...

s from digesting other organisms. About one half of dinoflagellates lack photosynthetic pigments and specialize in consuming other eukaryotic cells, and even photosynthetic forms are often predatory.

Organisms that derive their nutrition in this manner include Oxyrrhis marina, which feeds phagocytically on phytoplankton

Phytoplankton

Phytoplankton are the autotrophic component of the plankton community. The name comes from the Greek words φυτόν , meaning "plant", and πλαγκτός , meaning "wanderer" or "drifter". Most phytoplankton are too small to be individually seen with the unaided eye...

, Polykrikos kofoidii, which feeds on several species of red-tide and/or toxic dinoflagellates, Ceratium furca

Ceratium furca

Ceratium furca is a species of marine dinoflagellate.-Description:This species has a straight body 70-200 µm long and 30-50 µm wide, with the epitheca gradually tapering into an anterior horn. Ceratium furca has long spines, and is an "armoured" species with a theca of thick cellulose plates...

, which is primarily photosynthetic but also capable of ingesting other protists such as ciliates, Cochlodinium polykrikoides, which feeds on phytoplankton, Gambierdiscus toxicus, which feeds on algae and produces a toxin

Toxin

A toxin is a poisonous substance produced within living cells or organisms; man-made substances created by artificial processes are thus excluded...

 that causes ciguatera fish poisoning when ingested, and Pfiesteria

Pfiesteria

Pfiesteria is a genus of heterotrophic dinoflagellates that has been associated with harmful algal blooms and fish kills. Pfiesteria complex organisms were claimed to be responsible for large fish kills in the 1980s and 1990s on the coast of North Carolina and in tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay...

and related species such as Luciella masanensis, which feed on diverse prey including fish skin and human blood cells. Predatory dinoflagellates can kill their prey by releasing toxins or phagocytize small prey directly.

Some predatory algae have evolved extreme survival strategies. For example, Oxyrrhis marina can turn cannibalistic

Cannibalism

Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

 on its own species when no suitable non-self prey is available, and Pfiesteria

Pfiesteria

Pfiesteria is a genus of heterotrophic dinoflagellates that has been associated with harmful algal blooms and fish kills. Pfiesteria complex organisms were claimed to be responsible for large fish kills in the 1980s and 1990s on the coast of North Carolina and in tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay...

and related species have been discovered to kill and feed on fish, and since have been (mistakenly) referred to as carnivorous "algae" by the media.

Usage in the popular media

The media has applied the term carnivorous or predatory algae mainly to Pfiesteria piscicida

Pfiesteria piscicida

Pfiesteria piscicida is a dinoflagellate species of the genus Pfiesteria that some researchers claim is responsible for many harmful algal blooms in the 1980s and 1990s on the coast of North Carolina and Maryland...

, Pfiesteria shumwayae

Pfiesteria shumwayae

Pseudopfiesteria shumwayae is a heterotrophic dinoflagellate species in the genus Pseudopfiesteria. It was first characterized in North Carolina in 2000. It can acquire the ability for photosynthesis through eating green algae and retaining their chloroplasts...

and other Pfiesteria-like dinoflagellate

Dinoflagellate

The dinoflagellates are a large group of flagellate protists. Most are marine plankton, but they are common in fresh water habitats as well. Their populations are distributed depending on temperature, salinity, or depth...

s implicated in harmful algal blooms and fish kill

Fish kill

The term fish kill, known also as fish die-off and as fish mortality, is a localized die-off of fish populations which may also be associated with more generalised mortality of aquatic life...

s. Pfiesteria as an "ambush predator

Ambush predator

Ambush predators or sit-and-wait predators are carnivorous animals that capture prey by stealth or cunning, not by speed or necessarily by strength. These organisms usually hide motionless and wait for prey to come within striking distance. They are often camouflaged, and may be solitary...

" utilizes a "hit and run

Hit and run

Hit and run typically refers to:* Hit and run , the crime of failing to stop and identify oneself after a vehicular collision* Hit and run , a baseball play in which runners are in motion before the ball is hit...

" feeding strategy by releasing a toxin that paralyzes the respiratory systems of susceptible fish, such as menhaden

Menhaden

Menhaden, also known as mossbunker, bunker and pogy, are forage fish of the genera Brevoortia and Ethmidium, two genera of marine fish in the family Clupeidae.-Description:...

, thus causing death by suffocation

Suffocation

Suffocation is the process of Asphyxia.Suffocation may also refer to:* Suffocation , an American death metal band* "Suffocation", a song on Morbid Angel's debut album, Altars of Madness...

. It then consumes the tissue sloughed off its dead prey. Pfiesteria piscicida has been blamed for killing more than one billion fish in the Neuse

Neuse River

The Neuse River is a river rising in the Piedmont of North Carolina and emptying into Pamlico Sound below New Bern. Its total length is approximately , making it the longest river entirely contained in North Carolina. The Trent River joins it at New Bern. Its drainage basin, measuring in area,...

 and Pamlico

Pamlico River

The Pamlico River is a tidal river that flows into Pamlico Sound, in North Carolina in the United States of America. It is formed by the confluence of the Tar River and Tranters Creek....

 river estuaries

Estuary

An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....

 in North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

 and causing skin lesions in humans in the 1990s. It has been described as "skinning fish alive to feed on their flesh" or chemically sensing fish and producing lethal toxins to kill their prey and feed off the decaying remains. Its deadly nature has led to Pfiesteria being referred to as "killer algae" and has earned the organism the reputation as the "T. rex

Tyrannosaurus

Tyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...

of the dinoflagellate world" or "the Cell from Hell."

"Pfiesteria hysteria"

The prominent and exaggerating media coverage of Pfiesteria as carnivorous algae attacking fish and humans has been implicated in causing "Pfiesteria hysteria" in the Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

 in 1997 resulting in an apparent outbreak of human illness in the Pocomoke

Pocomoke River

The Pocomoke River stretches approximately from southern Delaware through southeastern Maryland in the United States. At its mouth, the river is essentially an arm of Chesapeake Bay, whereas the upper river flows through a series of relatively inaccessible wetlands called the Great Cypress Swamp,...

 region in Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

. However, a study published the following year concluded the symptoms were unlikely to be caused by mass hysteria.

In popular culture

During the media coverage in the 1990s, Pfiesteria has been referred to as "super villain" and subsequently has been used as such in several fictional works. A Pfiesteria subspecies killing humans featured in James Powlik's 1999 environmental thriller Sea Change

Sea Change (Powlik novel)

Sea Change is a novel by oceanographer James Powlik published in 1999. It is an environmental thriller about a harmful algal bloom....

. In Frank Schätzing

Frank Schätzing

' , is a German writer, mostly known for his best-selling science fiction novel The Swarm .- Life :Schätzing was born in Cologne and studied communication studies; he later ran his own company, an advertising agency named INTEVI, in Cologne. Schätzing became a writer in 1990, and penned several...

's 2004 science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 novel The Swarm

The Swarm (novel)

The Swarm is a science fiction novel by German author Frank Schätzing. It was first published in Germany and Austria in 2004 and soon became a bestseller.-Plot:...

, lobster

Lobster

Clawed lobsters comprise a family of large marine crustaceans. Highly prized as seafood, lobsters are economically important, and are often one of the most profitable commodities in coastal areas they populate.Though several groups of crustaceans are known as lobsters, the clawed lobsters are most...

s and crab

Crab

True crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax...

s spread the killer alga Pfiesteria homicida to humans.

In Yann Martel

Yann Martel

Yann Martel is a Canadian author best known for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi.-Early life:Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain where his father was posted as a diplomat for the Canadian government. He was raised in Costa Rica, France, Mexico, and Canada...

's 2001 novel Life of Pi

Life of Pi

Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age...

, the protagonist encounters a floating island of carnivorous algae inhabited by meerkat

Meerkat

The meerkat or suricate, Suricata suricatta, is a small mammal belonging to the mongoose family. Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, in much of the Namib Desert in Namibia and southwestern Angola, and in South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan"...

s while shipwrecked in the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

. At a book reading in Calgary

Calgary

Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Martel explained that the carnivorous algae island had the purpose of representing the more fantastical of two competing stories in his novel and challenge the reader to a "leap of faith."

In the 2005 National Geographic TV show Extraterrestrial

Aurelia and Blue Moon

Aurelia and Blue Moon are hypothetical examples of a planet and a moon on which extraterrestrial life could evolve. They are the outcome of a collaboration between television company Blue Wave Productions Ltd. and a group of American and British scientists who were collectively commissioned by...

, the alien organism termed Hysteria combines characteristics of Pfiesteria with those of cellular slime molds

Dictyostelid

The dictyostelids are a group of cellular slime molds, or social amoebae.-Slug behavior:When food is readily available they are individual amoebae, which feed and divide normally...

. Like Pfiesteria, Hysteria is a unicellular, microscopic predator capable of producing a paralytic toxin. Like cellular slime molds, it can release chemical stress signals that cause the cells to aggregate into a swarm

Swarm

Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by animals of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving en masse or migrating in some direction. As a term, swarming is applied particularly to insects, but can also be applied to...

 which allows the newly formed superorganism to feed on much larger animals and produce a fruiting body that releases spore

Spore

In biology, a spore is a reproductive structure that is adapted for dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavorable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many bacteria, plants, algae, fungi and some protozoa. According to scientist Dr...

s for reproduction.