protozoan
/ˌprəʊtə(ʊ)ˈzəʊən
/Zoology
noun
A single-celled microscopic animal of a group of phyla of the kingdom Protista, such as an amoeba, flagellate, ciliate, or sporozoan.I devoured photographs showing the ghostly glow of bacteria on decaying fish: the shimmering phosphorescence of protozoans in tropical seas....
- They have been considered animals, protozoans, fungi or space aliens.
- Schindler says more of a problem are the protozoans that originate from livestock.
adjective
Relating to or denoting protozoans.Less critical than refugia, prey switching also plays a role in protozoan persistence....
- Malaria is an example of a disease caused by a vector-borne protozoan parasite.
- The contact time with the iodine in the filter may be too short to kill protozoan cysts, however.
Derivatives
protozoal
- I test these hypotheses experimentally in a host-parasite system involving wild turkeys and their deleterious, intestinal protozoal parasites, the eimerian coccidia (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae).
- The United States Department of Agriculture has issued a conditional license for the production of a vaccine that could prevent equine protozoal myeloencephalitis.
- The 15-year-old missed about a month earlier this spring following the detection of arthritis at the base of his neck and a possible case of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis.
protozoic
- None of you realise it yet, but this is an advance as big as the step the first ichthyoid took out of the protozoic sea 300 million years ago.
protozoon
- The protozoon has a characteristic teardrop shape, measures 10 to 15 mm in length and is characterized by twin nuclei and an adhesive disk that is a rigid structure reinforced by supelicular microtubules.
- When the parasite protozoon or single-celled animal invades the body, rather than just the skin or lining of body cavities (mucous membranes) it is called visceral Leishmaniasis.
- The word ‘evolution’ generally conveys the meaning of the sort of change which will ultimately be able to convert a protozoon into a man or a reptile into a bird, and so on.