Amoeba (genus)

automatic taxobox | image = Amoeba proteus with many pseudopodia.jpg | image_caption = Amoeba proteus | taxon = Amoeba | authority = Bory de Saint-Vincent, 1822Bory de Saint-Vincent, J.B.G.M. (1822-1831). Article "Amiba". In: 'Dictionnaire classique d'histoire naturelle par Messieurs Audouin, Isid. Bourdon, Ad. Brongniart, De Candolle, Daudebard de Férusac, A. Desmoulins, Drapiez, Edwards, Flourens, Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire, A. De Jussieu, Kunth, G. de Lafosse, Lamouroux, Latreille, Lucas fils, Presle-Duplessis, C. Prévost, A. Richard, Thiébaut de Berneaud, et Bory de Saint-Vincent. Ouvrage dirigé par ce dernier collaborateur, et dans lequel on a ajouté, pour le porter au niveau de la science, un grand nombre de mots qui n'avaient pu faire partie de la plupart des Dictionnaires antérieurs. 17 vols. Paris: Rey et Gravier; Baudoin frères, vol. 1, p. 260, . | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = Amoeba agilis Kirk, 1907 Amoeba gorgonia Pen. Amoeba limicola Rhumb. Amoeba proteus Pal. Amoeba vespertilio Pen. | synonyms = Proteus Mueller 1786 non Hauser 1885 non Roesel 1755 non Dujardin 1835 non Laurenti 1768 Vibrio Gmelin 1788 non Pacini 1854 Metamoeba Friz, 1992 Amoeba is a genus of single-celled amoeboids in the family Amoebidae. The type species of the genus is Amoeba proteus, a common freshwater organism, widely studied in classrooms and laboratories. The earliest record of an organism resembling Amoeba was produced in 1755 by August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof, who named his discovery "der kleine Proteus" ("the little Proteus"), after Proteus, the shape-shifting sea-god of Greek Mythology. While Rösel's illustrations show a creature similar in appearance to the one now known as Amoeba proteus, his "little Proteus'' cannot be identified confidently with any modern species. The term "Proteus animalcule" remained in use throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, as an informal name for any large, free-living amoeboid. In 1758, apparently without seeing Rösel's "Proteus" for himself, Carl Linnaeus included the organism in his own system of classification, under the name Volvox chaos.