Opalozoa
| Opalozoa | |
|---|---|
| Opalina ranarum, an opalozoan | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Clade: | Diaphoretickes |
| Clade: | Sar |
| Clade: | Stramenopiles |
| Phylum: | Bigyra |
| Subphylum: | Opalozoa Cavalier-Smith, 1991 stat. nov. 2006 |
| Infraphyla and classes | |
| |
Opalozoa is a subphylum of heterotrophic protists of the phylum Bigyra, and is the sister group to Sagenista. Opalozoans are non-photosynthetic heterokonts that are ancestrally phagotrophic but many times have evolved to be osmotrophic saprotrophs in the gut of vertebrate animals.