Ciliate - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ciliates Temporal range: Ediacaran - Recent
"Ciliata" from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Chromalveolata
Superphylum:	Alveolata
Phylum:	Ciliophora Doflein, 1901 emend.

The ciliates are a group of protists which have hair-like organelles called cilia.

Ciliates are identical in structure to flagella, but typically shorter and in much larger numbers. They have a different pattern of waving than do flagella.

Cilia occur in all members of the group (although the peculiar suctoria have them only for part of the life-cycle). They are used for swimming, crawling, attachment, feeding, and sensation.

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