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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 2883

Wilhelm Foissner; Protist Diversity: Estimates of the Near-Imponderable. Protist 150:363-368, 1999

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I present and summarize data which show that biodiversity of free-living ciliates is perhaps one order of magnitude greater than the 3000 morphospecies proposed by Finlay and Fenchel. Furthermore, there is indisputable evidence of endemism and restricted biogeographical distribution of at least some protozoan species. At present, any estimate of protist species richness is highly speculative because only a tiny fraction of the potential protist habitats of the biosphere has ever been carefully analyzed. I thus suggest that further research should concentrate on alpha-taxonomy, that is, the accurate description of species and their distribution according to habitats and regions.