Can blue-green algae be considered a protist?

Question

I know that blue-green algae was formally known as cyanobacteria. but is it a protist? and do you think i would beable to find some on beaches or somewhere? i need it for a class.

thanx in advance

Answer 1

They are now classified as eubacteria and make up the largest group of photosynthetic organisms in the prokaryotes. DNA sequence of their genome has given us the data to place them phylogenically. However some cyanobacteria are algae-like in appearance, Lyngbya, so are referred to as macrophytes.

http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Cyanobacter...

Lyngbya

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&cl...

Cyanobacteria are found in most any water: fresh, salt or brackish. They are often easiest to find in still ponds with low nitrogen because they can fix their own, unlike true algae. (Only bacteria are able to fix atmospheric nitrogen.)

Scroll down to the cyanobacteria section on this water management site.

http://www.virtualviz.com/algae.htm

Intro to Cyanobacteria

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria/cy...

Spirulina and other cyanophyte images

http://www-cyanosite.bio.purdue.edu/imag...

U. of Toronto collection and culture of cyanobacteria

http://www.botany.utoronto.ca/utcc/