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
Freshwater bivalve on a fish or salamander. Many species are utilized as sources of mother-of-pearl. Families: Order Veneroida The Veneroida is a large group of bivalve "clams", most of which are marine. However, several families occur in fresh and brackish waters. Families: Freshwater bivalve Freshwater bivalves are one kind of freshwater molluscs, along with freshwater snails. They are bivalves which live in freshwater, as opposed to saltwater, the main habitat type for bivalves. The majority of species of bivalve molluscs live in the sea, but in addition, a number of different families live in freshwater (and in some cases also in brackish