Brackish water Paramecium species and Paramecium polycaryum. Morphometrical analysis and some biological peculiarities

Morphometrical analysis of 13 cell attributes 25 stocks of 5 Paramecium spe cies (P. woodruffi, P. L calkinsi, P. nephridiatum, P. duboscqui and P. pol ycaryum) was carried out to examine the diversity of cell morphology in the se ciliates. Classification and ordination of the species data were made on the basis of Braverman recalculation of the Euclidean distance and were gr aphically represented as dendrogramms and two-dimensional space accounting for similarity/nonsimilarity of the species. Morphometrical data fur the ma cronuclear and micronuclear morphology also were received. According to the investigated morphological and biological peculiarities and full literatur e analysis on these five, mainly brackish water species of Paramecium, some speculation of their phylogenetic relationships is proposed.