Euglenozoa in the context of Euglenophyceae

Euglenids or euglenoids are one of the best-known groups of eukaryotic flagellates: single-celled organisms with flagella, or whip-like tails. They are classified in the phylum Euglenozoa, class Euglenida or Euglenoidea. Euglenids are commonly found in fresh water, especially when it is rich in organic materials, but they have a few marine and endosymbiotic members. Many euglenids feed by phagocytosis, or strictly by diffusion. A monophyletic subgroup known as Euglenophyceae have chloroplasts and produce their own food through photosynthesis. This group contains the carbohydrate paramylon.

Euglenids split from other Euglenozoa (a larger group of flagellates) more than a billion years ago. The plastids (membranous organelles) in all extant photosynthetic species result from secondary endosymbiosis between a euglenid and a green alga.

Excavata is an obsolete, extensive and diverse paraphyletic group of unicellular Eukaryota. The group was first suggested by Simpson and Patterson in 1999 and the name latinized and assigned a rank by Thomas Cavalier-Smith in 2002. It contains a variety of free-living and symbiotic protists, and includes some important parasites of humans such as Giardia and Trichomonas. Excavates were formerly considered to be included in the now- obsolete Protista kingdom. They were distinguished from other lineages based on electron-microscopic information about how the cells are arranged (they have a distinctive ultrastructural identity). They are considered to be a basal flagellate lineage.

On the basis of phylogenomic analyses, the group was shown to contain three widely separated eukaryote groups, the discobids, metamonads, and malawimonads. A current view of the composition of the excavates is given below, indicating that the group is paraphyletic. Except for some Euglenozoa, all are non-photosynthetic.

Jakobida is an order (sole order in the class Jakobea) of free-living, heterotrophic, flagellar eukaryotes in the clade Discoba. They are small (less than 15 μm), and can be found in aerobic and anaerobic environments. The order Jakobida, believed to be monophyletic, consists of only twenty species at present, and was classified as a group in 1993. There is ongoing research into the mitochondrial genomes of jakobids, which are unusually large and bacteria-like, evidence that jakobids may be important to the evolutionary history of eukaryotes.

Molecular phylogenetic evidence suggests strongly that jakobids are most closely related to Heterolobosea and Euglenozoa.