Ancoracysta is a genus of eukaryoticmicrobes containing the species Ancoracysta twista, a predatory protist that appears to be related to Haptista.[1]
Description
Ancoracysta twista was first described in November 2017 in Current Biology. It was found in a sample collected from the surface of a tropical aquariumbrain coral. It actively feeds on Procryptobia sorokini, probably immobilising its prey through discharging a previously unknown type of extrusome named an ancoracyst.[1]
A 2018 study from Cavalier-Smith, Chao & Lewis created a new subphylum and subsequent lower taxonomic ranks for Ancoracysta twista. They also created a new combination for Colponema marisrubri (Mylnikov & Tikhonenkov, 2009), which was shown to be ultrastructurally similar and phylogenetically close to A. twista, thus renaming it A. marisrubri.[2] This species was later placed into a new genus, Nebulomonas, and is now called Nebulomonas marisrubri.[3]