From Protist to Prokaryote

You teach kids biology and therefore you know about the five kingdoms of life: prokaryotes, protists, fungi, plants, and animals. But, can you explain the difference between "bacteria" with a lower-case "b" and "Bacteria" with an upper-case "B"?What about the comparisons between Archaea and Bacteria? Where do Monera come into the picture? And, what do Protists have to do with any of this?

If this seems potentially confusing to your students, consider a new biology text created specifically to better deal with the complexities and wonders of biological organization and classification, Kingdoms of Life Connected. This new book by Priscilla Spears is a teacher's godsend when the confusing and difficult details of teaching the interelations and interconnectedness of life is your priority.

This excellent new book will kindle your students' curiosities as it presents a new perspective on the order and organization of life in an entertaining manner. In addition, the structure of the book itself is designed to make sure that the teacher is always a step ahead of even the brightest student.

After you go through spirochetes, cyanobacteria, hyperthermophiles and methanogens, with all their variety and amazing abilities, your students will move into even more interesting questions. For example, what do bacteria have to do with copper, beans, linen, chocolate and antibiotic ointment? The book offers a variety of hands-on activities and experiments to reinforce the lessons learned.

By the time you leave the prokaryotes and move into the protists, your students will be eager to learn about the exciting first eukaryotes. This is an intriguing group that is completely unlike the animals and plants. Some are big enough to see, but many make great microscope subjects. By the time you guide your students through the story of protists in Kingdoms of Life Connected, you may have produced converts to serious study of biology even before you get to plants and animals.

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Protist Diversity and Geographical Distribution (Hardcover) $419.47 There is still a widespread belief that microscopic organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, protists, and small multicellulars, have a cosmopolitan distribution due to a presumed easy dispersal by wind and water. However, the contributions collected in this book - ranging from protists to rotifers and mosses - show that microorganisms have community structures and biogeographies similar to those found in animals and vascular plants, although the ranges of many can be wider and local endemism is rarer. Accordingly, the cosmopolitan distribution model of Finlay and Fenchel is to be replaced by the moderate endemicity model of Foissner, which assumes that one third of microscopic organisms are morphological and/or genetic endemics. This has far-reaching consequences for estimates of the number of species and their conservation. There is convincing evidence that we know only about 20% of the actual diversity in many protist groups, especially saprotrophs and heterotrophs such as amoebae, flagellates, and ciliates. It is probable that this great diversity of microscopic organisms is caused by low extinction rates over geological time, and short generation times which foster dispersal of genetic variants. That the great diversity of microorganisms has remained unrecognized for such a long time has several reasons, of which the most serious is a shortage of taxonomists. Considering the dramatic losses of habitats occurring, especially in the tropics, a large portion of the Earth`s protist biodiversity will disappear before it has been discovered. Reprinted from Biodiversity and Conservation, volume 17:2 (2008).

Protist Diversity and Geographical Distribution $203.78 No Synopsis Available

Protists (Paperback) $20.25 Looks at the protist kingdom, providing information and examples of species from the major phyla, as well as information about the role of protists in the food chain and in various diseases.