Sporozoa
/ˌspɒrəˈzəʊə
/plural noun Zoology & Medicine
A phylum of mainly parasitic spore-forming protozoans that have a complex life cycle with sexual and asexual generations. They include the organisms that cause malaria, babesiosis, coccidiosis, and toxoplasmosis. Also called Apicomplexa.Another example is Sporozoa, which exemplify the opposing selective forces that act on cell size and genome size in extracellular versus intracellular parasites....
- The Sporozoa were comprised of a number of parasitic protozoans and were generally characterized by a lack of characters.
Origin
Modern Latin (plural), from spore + Greek zōia 'animals'.