Telonemia is a phylum

Phylum

In biology, a phylum The term was coined by Georges Cuvier from Greek φῦλον phylon, "race, stock," related to φυλή phyle, "tribe, clan." is a taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. "Phylum" is equivalent to the botanical term division....

 of microscopic eukaryote

Eukaryote

A eukaryote is an organism whose cells contain complex structures enclosed within membranes. Eukaryotes may more formally be referred to as the taxon Eukarya or Eukaryota. The defining membrane-bound structure that sets eukaryotic cells apart from prokaryotic cells is the nucleus, or nuclear...

, single-celled organisms. They are 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 and are suggested to have evolutionary significance in being a possible transitional form between ecologically important heterotrophic and photosynthetic species among chromalveolates.

One paper places them in the SAR supergroup

SAR supergroup

The SAR supergroup is a clade that includes Stramenopiles , Alveolates, and Rhizaria.The first letter of each group provides the "SAR" in the name.It includes most of the organisms in the Chromalveolata grouping, but not Hacrobia....

. Phylogenomic analyses of 127 genes place Telonemia with Centroheliozoa in a group also consisting of cryptomonad

Cryptomonad

The cryptomonads are a group of algae, most of which have plastids. They are common in freshwater, and also occur in marine and brackish habitats. Each cell is around 10-50 μm in size and flattened in shape, with an anterior groove or pocket...

s and haptophyte

Haptophyte

The haptophytes, classified either as the Prymnesiophyta or Haptophyta, are a division of algae.The term "Haptophyceae" is sometimes used. This ending implies classification at a lower level...

s (see Cryptomonads-haptophytes assemblage).

Although they have been studied in primarily marine environments, they have also been found in freshwater.

Species

Although only two species have been described formally, DNA sequences collected from seawater suggest there are many more species which have not yet been described.

• Telonema antarctica Thomsen 1992
• Telonema subtile Griessmann 1913 (synonym Telonema subtilis Griessmann, 1913)

External links

• Taxonomy, from the Taxonomy Browser of the National Center for Biotechnology Information
  National Center for Biotechnology Information
  The National Center for Biotechnology Information is part of the United States National Library of Medicine , a branch of the National Institutes of Health. The NCBI is located in Bethesda, Maryland and was founded in 1988 through legislation sponsored by Senator Claude Pepper...
  
  .
• Images, etc. from iSpecies.org