Kamera lens is a unicellular, flagellate organism and the only species in the genus Kamera. Though the species has been known for centuries, it is poorly understood. Its systematic position within the Eukaryota is uncertain.
| Kamera lens | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Genus: | Kamera (O.F.Müller) Patterson & Zölffel, 1991 |
| Species: | K. lens
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| Binomial name | |
| Kamera lens (O.F.Müller) Patterson & Zölffel, 1991
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| Synonyms[2] | |
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Anatomy, nutrition and reproduction
editKamera lens is a free-living, swimming, heterotrophic organism. It is 6 to 7 by 2.5 to 3 micrometers on average[3] and ovate. The base of both its long flagella is below the tip (subapical). There is only one nucleus.[3] Ultrastructural characters are not known.[4]
Kamera lens lives as a saprobiont[3] and can be found in hay infusions. William Saville Kent reported spore-masses of it in such an infusion in 1880.[5]
Taxonomy and history
editThe first valid description (as Monas lens) was published by Otto Friedrich Müller in 1773.[1] William Saville Kent placed it in the genus Heteromita in 1880.[5] Edwin Klebs moved it to Bodo in 1892, but this was rejected by H.M. Woodcock, who removed the species from Bodo and made it the type species of Heteromastix.[3] David J. Patterson and Michael Zölffel found Woodcock's description to be insufficient and established the genus Kamera for Kamera lens in 1991, creating a play on words in the binomial's resemblance to "camera lens".[4] Due to lacking ultrastructural or molecular biological data, the species' rank is uncertain; thus it is placed as incertae sedis in the Eukaryota.
This species has been provisionally placed in the Ochrophyta. The taxonomy of this group is currently under revision so the position of the genus Kamera should not be regarded as being settled at the moment.
References
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- ^ a b Otto Friedrich Müller: Vermivm Terrestrium Et Fluviatilium, Seu Animalium Infusoriorum, Helminthicorum Et Testaceorum, Non Marinorum, Succincta Historia, Vol. 1, Ps. 1, Leipzig 1773, p. 26 doi:10.5962/bhl.title.46299
- ^ Patterson, D.J. & Larsen, J. (1991). The biology of free-living heterotrophic flagellates. Systematics Association Special Volume No. 45. pp. i-xiii, [1]-505. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- ^ a b c d H. M. Woodcock: Observations on Coprozoic Flagellates: Together with a Suggestion as to the Significance of the Kinetonucleus in the Binucleata, In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Vol. 207, 1916, p. 395-397
- ^ a b David J. Patterson, Naja Vors, Alastair G.B. Simpson, Charles O. Kelly: Residual Free-Living And Predatory Heterotrophic Flagellates In: Residual Free-Living And Predatory Heterotrophic Flagellates In: Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa, 2nd Edition. Vol. 2, Society of Protozoologists, Lawrence, Kansas 2000, ISBN 1-891276-23-9, p. 1302-1328.
- ^ a b William Saville Kent: A manual of the infusoria, including a description of all known flagellate, ciliate, and tentaculiferous protozoa, British and foreign and an account of the organization and affinities of the sponges, Vol. 1, 1880, p. 135-142 doi:10.5962/bhl.title.1243