Marine life asexually by binary fission, fragmentation, or budding; unlike bacteria and eukaryotes, no known species forms spores. Archaea are particularly numerous in the oceans, and the archaea in plankton may be one of the most abundant groups of organisms on the planet. Archaea are a major part of Earth's life and may play roles in both the carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle. Of eukaryotic groups, the protists are most commonly unicellular and microscopic. This is a highly diverse group of organisms that are not easy to classify. Several algae species are multicellular protists, and there are marine slime molds have
Marine microorganism a large number of eukaryotic microbial communities have yet to be discovered. At least one microscopic animal group, the parasitic cnidarian Myxozoa, is unicellular in its adult form, and includes marine species. Other marine microanimals are multicellular. Microscopic arthropods are more commonly found inland in freshwater, but there are marine species as well. Microscopic marine crustaceans include some copepods, cladocera and water bears. Some marine nematodes and rotifers are also too small to be seen with the naked eye, as are many loricifera, including the recently discovered anaerobic species that spend their lives in an anoxic environment. Copepods contribute more