protozoon

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   dated: a single protozoan organism; one of the mostly microscopic unicellular organisms formerly grouped as Protozoa

   The older evolutionary account imagined a continuous ascent from the protozoon to the philosopher.

From New Latin protozoon, built from Ancient Greek protos ("first") + zoon ("animal"). Nineteenth-century biology treated Protozoa as the simplest animals; modern classifications distribute these organisms among several eukaryotic lineages.

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