[Taxacom] Kingdom Protista

[Kenneth Kinman]

Hi Curtis,
       I don't think paraphyletic "remainders" like Class Reptilia or
Kingdom Protista are abnormally large, especially compared to their
exgroups.  Do you remember my overall classification of Kingdom Protista
which I posted here in March 2006?  See below.  It only has 16 Phyla.
Just because so many other protist classifications are bloated (and
rather unwieldy) doesn't mean it has to be that way.
And classifying Reptilia is a breeze compared to classifying all the
Orders of birds and mammals.  Anyway, I prefer to think of such
paraphyletic taxa as mother groups, not as "remainders".
        --------Ken            
----------------------------------------------------------
>From March 2006.
Dear All, 
      Since the 5-Kingdom system has been so popular for so long, I'm
going to (temporarily?) give it a try here.  To convert it to my
preferred 4-Kingdom system, you can simply replace the exgroup marker
{{EUMYCOTA}} with the 3 eumycotan Phyla----Eomycota (incl.
microsporidians), Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota.  In any case, I will
not use the name "Fungi" as a formal taxon name (Eumycota is far more
precise for the true fungi).  And I certainly will not recognize a 6th
Kingdom for the Chromista clade (Cryptophyta, Haptophyta, and
Heterokonta).  Following the classification, I will further discuss
various subclades of Protista. 
     Anyway, the total is 16 Phyla of protists (and it would be 19 phyla
if you included the 3 phyla of Eumycota). The Apusozoa may need to be
split off from Rhizaria, but I expect virtually all of the other
"candidate" phyla will actually turn out to fit nicely into one of the
phyla listed below.  We certainly do NOT need a bunch of new eukaryotic
kingdoms.  As always, the main clades are numbered in the order in which
they split off phylogenetically. 

                   KINGDOM PROTISTA    

  1   Choanozoa%%  (= Mesomycetozoa) 
 _a_   {{EUMYCOTA}} 
 _b_   {{METAZOA}} 
  2   Amoebozoa 
  3   Rhizaria 
  4   Loukozoa (jakobids and allies) 
  B   Metamonada (incl. Parabasalia) 
  C   Percolozoa 
  D   Euglenozoa 
  5   Glaucophyta 
  B   Rhodophyta 
  C   Chlorophyta% 
 _a_   {{METAPHYTA}} 
  6   Cryptophyta 
  B   Haptophyta 
  C   Heterokonta (stramenopiles) 
  7   Ciliophora 
  8   Dinozoa (or Dinophyta) 
  9   Sporozoa 
---------------------------------------------- 
    NOTES:  Clade 1 is the opisthokont clade, which is sister to the
anterokont clade (clades 2-9).  Phylum Amoebozoa is sister to the
bikonts (clades 3-9).  Phylum Rhizaria is sister to the
corticoflagellates (clades 4-9). 
    Clade 4 is made up of the four excavate phyla (of which Percolozoa
and Euglenozoa make up a discicristate subclade).  Excavates are sister
to the photokaryotes (clades 5-9).  Clade 5 is the plant clade, which
Cavalier-Smith calls Plantae, and it also equals the Archaeplastida
clade of Adl et al., 2005.  And finally we have the chromalveolates
(three phyla of chromists and three phyla of alveolates)---still the
"crown group" after all these years.  :-) 
      ------Cheers, 
                   Ken Kinman