Simpson Lab - Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Canada

Protists

Excavates

Eventually, I'll get some nice pictures and useful information up here. Maybe.

If you are looking for information on 'excavates', here are some useful sources:

The Tree-of-life web project has some excellent information on groups of excavates. We contributed the pages on jakobids, malawimonads and Trimastix Other groups of excavates can be accessed from the root page for eukaryotes, which we also helped with.
Roger lab website.
Micro*scope (this link takes you to our little collection of images).

New Taxa

Here are some of the new taxa of protists that we have named recently. Some of them recognise worthy people and institutions.

Ergobibamus cyprinoides n. gen., n. sp., Park et al., 2010. Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 57: 520-528. [link to paper] - A new Carpediemonas-like organism (CLO). Carpediemonas and CLOs are free-living heterotrophic flagellates related to diplomonads and retortamonads. The name Ergobibamus is derived from the title of a poem by Goethe - "Ergo Bibamus" (therefore, let's drink). Goethe's poem expresses a similar sentiment to Horace's Ode 1.11: This ode is the source of the aphorism "Carpe diem" (seize the day / pluck the day), from which was derived the genus name Carpediemonas.

Hicanonectes teleskopos n. gen., n. sp., Park et al., 2009. Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 56: 373-384 [link to paper] - Another new Carpediemonas-like organism. The species name recognises the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIfAR - pronounced 'See-far'), for their ongoing commitment for Microbial Biodiversity and Evolution through their Programs in Evolutionary Biology and Integrated Microbial Biodiversity.

Euplaesiobystra hypersalinica gen. et sp. nov. Park, J.S., et al., 2009. Protist, 160: 265-283. [link to paper] - An (extremely?) halophilic amoeboflagellate heterolobosean. Modification of a name first proposed, informally by Dr Tom Nerad.

Tulamoeba peronaphora gen. et sp. nov. Park, J.S., et al., 2009. Protist, 160: 265-283. [link to paper] - An (extremely?) halophilic heterolobosean amoeba. This genus name recognises the Tula Foundation, for their ongoing commitment to Microbial Biodiversity and Evolution through funding to CGEB at Dalhousie, and CMDE at the University of British Columbia.

Discoba (the taxon name for the Discicristata-Jakobida clade). Simpson in Hampl et al. 2009 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 106: 3859-64. [pubmed entry].

Halocafeteria seosinensis gen. et sp. nov. Park et al. 2006 Extremophiles, 10: 493-504.[pubmed entry] - An extremely halophilic bicosoecid. (Note: name suggested by co-author Professor Byung Cheol Cho)

Andalucia godoyi gen. et sp. nov. Lara et al. 2006. Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology, 53: 112-120. [pubmed entry]. Andalucia is a group of heterotrophic flagellates that represents the deepest branch within Jakobida (jakobids). Species name (from Enrique Lara) recognises Jose Godoy (Andujar, Spain), who helps the poorest people in his region, and also provided samples.

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