Protistology is a scientific discipline devoted to the study ofprotists, a highly diverse group ofeukaryotic organisms. All eukaryotes apart from animals, plants and fungi are considered protists.[1] Its field of study therefore overlaps with the more traditional disciplines ofphycology,mycology, andprotozoology, just as protists embrace mostlyunicellular organisms described asalgae, some organisms regarded previously as primitivefungi, andprotozoa ("animal" motile protists lacking chloroplasts).[1]
They are aparaphyletic group with very diverse morphologies and lifestyles. Their sizes range from unicellularpicoeukaryotes only a few micrometres in diameter to multicellularmarine algae several metres long.[1]
The history of the study of protists has its origins in the17th century. Since the beginning, the study of protists has been intimately linked to developments inmicroscopy, which have allowed important advances in the understanding of these organisms due to their generally microscopic nature. Among the pioneers wasAnton van Leeuwenhoek, who observed a variety of free-living protists and in 1674 named them “very littleanimalcules”.[2]
The term "protozoology" has become dated as understanding of the evolutionary relationships of the eukaryotes has improved, and is frequently replaced by the term "protistology". For example, the Society of Protozoologists, founded in 1947, was renamed International Society of Protistologists in 2005. However, the older term is retained in some cases (e.g., the Polish journalActa Protozoologica).[4]
The field of protistology was idealized by Haeckel, but its widespread recognition is more recent. In fact, many of the researchers cited below considered themselves as protozoologists, phycologists, mycologists, microbiologists, microscopists, parasitologists, limnologists, biologists, naturalists, zoologists, botanists, etc., but made significant contributions to the field.
^Barry S. C. Leadbeater; Sharon M. M. McReady (2000). "Chapter 1. The flagellates: historical perspectives". In Barry S. C. Leadbeater; J. C. Green (eds.).The Flagellates. Unity, diversity and evolution. London: Taylor & Francis. pp. 1–26.doi:10.1201/9781482268225.ISBN978-0-429-18213-6.
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