Apicomplexa are an ancient group of single celled pathogens of humans and animals that include the etiological agents of such devastating plagues as malaria, toxoplasmosis and coccidiosis. Two groups of free living single celled organisms, chromerids (e.g. Chromera velia) and colpodellids (e.g. Colpodella edax), diverged from Apicomplexa (and from each other) at around the same time as obligate parasitism emerged in the latter group. Recent evidence has begun to elucidate a remarkable repurposing of elements more commonly associated with an iconic eukaryotic feature, the flagellum, in the development of that apical complex - a shared compartment by all Apicomplexa. The free-living relatives of the Apicomplexa that are found in Australia produce flagella and a rudimentary apical complex simultaneously and we have shown that these structures are closely associated. We have proposed that this close association provides a glimpse of the full ‘ancestral’ state of the system defining all Apicomplexa.