Mantamonads are a group of free-living heterotrophic flagellates that move primarily by gliding on surfaces (rather than swimming).

[1][4] However, mantamonads are currently placed in CRuMs on the basis of phylogenomic analyses that identify their closest relatives as the Diphylleida and Rigifilida.

[3] When wide-shaped, they present lateral "wings" that resemble the fins of a manta ray (hence the name Mantamonas).

[3] When discovered in 2011, a phylogenetic analysis based on 28S and 18S rRNA recovered Mantamonas as a lineage closely related to Planomonadida and Apusomonadida, within the paraphyletic Apusozoa.

[1] Later in 2018, a phylogenomic analysis recovered Mantamonas as the sister group of a clade comprising Collodictyonidae and Rigifilida.