Opalina

Opalina
Scientific classification
(unranked):	SAR
Division:	Heterokontophyta
Class:	Opalinea
Order:	Opalinida
Family:	Opalinidae
Genus:	Opalina Purkinye & Valentin, 1835

Opalina is a genus of protozoa found in the intestines of frogs and toads. They lack mouths and contractile vacuoles, they are covered with nearly equal flagelliform cilia, and they have numerous nuclei, all similar. All the species are obligate endosymbionts, most likely commensal rather than parasitic, in cold-blooded vertebrates. Its body is leaflike in shape. They lack cytostomes. They are saprozoic, consuming dead matter, which suggests their commensal role.

An example of a species is Opalina ranarum.^[1]

References

1. Woolley DM (November 2006). "Newly discovered linkages between the cortical (pellicular) ridges of Opalina". Eur. J. Protistol. 42 (4): 309–11. doi:10.1016/j.ejop.2006.08.002. PMID 17113476.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.