Protists: Kingdom Protista

Protists (pronounced /ˈproʊtɨst/) are a diverse group of eukaryotic microorganisms. which include mostly unicellular organisms that do not fit into the other kingdoms. Historically, protists were treated as the kingdom Protista, which includes mostly unicellular organisms that do not fit into the other kingdoms, but this group is contested in modern taxonomy. Instead, it is "better regarded as a loose grouping of 30 or 40 disparate phyla with diverse combinations of trophic modes, mechanisms of motility, cell coverings and life cycles."[2]

The protists do not have much in common besides a relatively simple organization[3]—either they are unicellular, or they are multicellular without specialized tissues. This simple cellular organization distinguishes the protists from other eukaryotes, such as fungi, animals and plants.