Question

What are euglena are they protozoans or algae
why they are somtimes called as euglena a plant or animal?

Answer 1

Dear Hriti,

Euglena is an unicellular flagellate organism from kingdom protista. It comes under the kingdom 'Protista'.

The reasons for which it is sometimes considered as plants or animals are as follows:
1. Euglena possesses chloroplast for synthesizing food which is a characteristic of plant but it does not possess cellulosic cell wall similar to plants.
2. It flagella for movement and feeds like animal which are the characteristics of animals. Euglena can move but plants cannot.
3. As Euglena possesses both plant and animal like characteristics, it was not placed in either of the kingdom.



Regards