An amoebae order Dactylopodida was established on the base of the results of the molecular phylogenetic analysis. To date it includes genera Vexillifera, Cunea, Pseudoparamoeba, Korotnevella, Paramoeba and Neoparamoeba. All representatives of this order share the ability to form non-furcating finger-shaped subpseudopodia (dactylopodia), which considered as morphological synapomorphy for this group. Up to now all these genera were distinguished by morhological features: peculiarities of locomotive form, presence or absence of kinetoplastid endosymbiont (Perkinsela amoebae-like organism, or PLO) and structure of the cell coat. The details of the cell coat evolution in Dactylopodida are still unclear.
Recent studies shown that situation with generic distinctions in this group actually is much more complex. One of the studied species formally fits the diagnosis of the genus Korotnevella, because it has scales and lacks PLO. At the same time its 18S rRNA gene sequence robustly groups with Pseudoparamoeba pagei (which lacks both PLO and scales) and never branches among those of Korotnevella spp. Thus the situation described above shows that to the moment the boundary between two genera Pseudoparamoeba and Korotnevella can be correctly drawn only on the basis of 18S rDNA sequence. Our data probably mean that actually the presence of scales is a primitive feature for a whole clade, which unifies genera Pseudoparamoeba, Korotnevella, Paramoeba and Neoparamoeba. Within this group scales retained in some species and lost in others.