Amoebozoa is a major
taxonomic group containing about 2,400 described species of
amoeboid protists, often possessing blunt, fingerlike, lobose
pseudopods and tubular
mitochondrial cristae. In most classification schemes, Amoebozoa is ranked as a
phylum within either the
kingdom Protista or the kingdom Protozoa. In the classification favored by the International Society of Protistologists, it is retained as an unranked "supergroup" within Eukaryota.
Molecular genetic analysis supports Amoebozoa as a
monophyletic clade. Most
phylogenetic trees identify it as the sister group to
Opisthokonta, another major clade which contains both
Fungi and
Animals as well as some 300 species of unicellular protists. Amoebozoa and Opisthokonta are sometimes grouped together in a high-level
taxon, variously named
Unikonta, Amorphea or Opimoda.