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Cnidarian
Cnidaria ( ) is a phylum under kingdom Animalia containing over 11,000 species of aquatic invertebrates found both in fresh water, freshwater and marine environments (predominantly the latter), including jellyfish, hydroid (zoology), hydroids, sea anemones, corals and some of the smallest marine parasites. Their distinguishing features are an uncentralized nervous system distributed throughout a gelatinous body and the presence of cnidocytes or cnidoblasts, specialized cells with ejectable flagella used mainly for envenomation and capturing prey. Their bodies consist of mesoglea, a non-living, jelly-like substance, sandwiched between two layers of epithelium that are mostly one cell (biology), cell thick. Cnidarians are also some of the few animals that can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Cnidarians mostly have two basic body forms: swimming medusa (biology), medusae and sessility (motility), sessile polyp (zoology), polyps, both of which are radially symmetrical with mou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jellyfish
Jellyfish, also known as sea jellies or simply jellies, are the #Life cycle, medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals, although a few are anchored to the seabed by stalks rather than being motile. They are made of an umbrella-shaped main body made of mesoglea, known as the ''bell'', and a collection of trailing tentacles on the underside. Via pulsating contractions, the bell can provide propulsion for animal locomotion, locomotion through open water. The tentacles are armed with cnidocyte, stinging cells and may be used to capture prey or to defend against predators. Jellyfish have a complex biological life cycle, life cycle, and the medusa is normally the sexual phase, which produces planula larvae. These then disperse widely and enter a sedentary #Life cycle, polyp phase which may include asexual budding before reaching sexual maturity. Jellyfish ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polypodiozoa
''Polypodium'' is a genus of cnidarians that parasitizes in the eggs of sturgeon and similar fishes (Acipenseridae and Polyodontidae). It is one of few animals that lives inside the cells of other animals. ''Polypodium hydriforme'' is the only species of this monotypic genus. The parent family (Polypodiidae), order (Polypodiidea) and class (Polypodiozoa) are also monotypic. Taxonomy Unusual characteristics have led to much controversy regarding the phylogenetic position of ''Polypodium'' within metazoans. ''Polypodium'' has traditionally been considered a cnidarian because it possesses nematocysts, the stinging structures characteristic of this phylum. Molecular phylogenetic studies using 18S rDNA sequence data temporarily challenged this interpretation, by finding that ''Polypodium'' is a close relative to myxozoans and suggesting that together they share a closer affinity to bilaterians than cnidarians. Due to the variable rates of 18S rDNA sequences, these results were ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Myxozoa
Myxozoa (etymology: Greek: μύξα ''myxa'' "slime" or "mucus" + thematic vowel o + ζῷον ''zoon'' "animal") is a subphylum of aquatic cnidarian animals – all obligate parasites. It contains the smallest animals ever known to have lived. Over 2,180 species have been described and some estimates have suggested at least 30,000 undiscovered species. Many have a two-host lifecycle, involving a fish and an annelid worm or a bryozoan. The average size of a myxosporean spore usually ranges from 10 μm to 20 μm, whereas that of a malacosporean (a subclade of the Myxozoa) spore can be up to 2 mm. Myxozoans can live in both freshwater and marine habitats. Myxozoans are highly derived cnidarians that have undergone dramatic evolution from a free swimming, self-sufficient jellyfish-like creature into their current form of obligate parasites composed of very few cells. As myxozoans evolved into microscopic parasites, they lost many genes responsible for multice ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Medusozoa
Medusozoa is a clade in the phylum Cnidaria, and is often considered a subphylum. It includes the classes Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa, Staurozoa and Box jellyfish, Cubozoa, and possibly the parasitic Polypodium (animal), Polypodiozoa. Medusozoans are distinguished by having a medusa stage in their often complex life cycle, a medusa typically being an umbrella-shaped body with stinging tentacles around the edge. With the exception of some Hydrozoa (and Polypodiozoa), all are called jellyfish in their free-swimming Jellyfish#Life history and behavior, medusa phase. Evolution The phylum Cnidaria is widely accepted as being Monophyly, monophyletic and consisting of two clades, Anthozoa and Medusozoa. Anthozoa includes the Class (biology), classes Hexacorallia, the hard corals, and Octocorallia, the soft corals, as well as Tube-dwelling anemone, Ceriantharia, the tube-dwelling anemones. There is strong support for this group having been the first to branch off from the ancestral line. Meduso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydra (genus)
''Hydra'' ( ) is a genus of small freshwater hydrozoans of the phylum Cnidaria. They are solitary, carnivorous jellyfish-like animals, native to the temperate and tropical regions. The genus was named by Linnaeus in 1758 after the Hydra, which was the many-headed beast of myth defeated by Heracles, as when the animal has a part severed, it will regenerate much like the mythical hydra's heads. Biologists are especially interested in ''Hydra'' because of their regenerative ability; they do not appear to die of old age, or to age at all. Habitat Hydras are often found in freshwater bodies, but some hydras are found in open water. They live attached to submerged rocks using a sticky secretion from their base. Morphology ''Hydra'' has a tubular, radially symmetric body up to long when extended, secured by a simple adhesive foot known as the basal disc. Gland cells in the basal disc secrete a sticky fluid that accounts for its adhesive properties. At the free end of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydrozoa
Hydrozoa (hydrozoans; from Ancient Greek ('; "water") and ('; "animals")) is a taxonomy (biology), taxonomic class (biology), class of individually very small, predatory animals, some solitary and some colonial, most of which inhabit saline water. The colony (biology), colonies of the colonial species can be large, and in some cases the specialized individual animals cannot survive outside the colony. A few genus, genera within this class live in freshwater ecosystem, freshwater habitats. Hydrozoans are related to jellyfish and corals, which also belong to the phylum (biology), phylum Cnidaria. Some examples of hydrozoans are the freshwater jelly (''Craspedacusta sowerbyi''), freshwater polyps (''Hydra (genus), Hydra''), ''Obelia'', Portuguese man o' war (''Physalia physalis''), chondrophores (Porpitidae), and pink-hearted hydroids (''Tubularia''). Anatomy Most hydrozoan species include both a polyp (zoology), polypoid and a medusa (biology), medusoid stage in their Biological ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydrozoans
Hydrozoa (hydrozoans; from Ancient Greek ('; "water") and ('; "animals")) is a taxonomic class of individually very small, predatory animals, some solitary and some colonial, most of which inhabit saline water. The colonies of the colonial species can be large, and in some cases the specialized individual animals cannot survive outside the colony. A few genera within this class live in freshwater habitats. Hydrozoans are related to jellyfish and corals, which also belong to the phylum Cnidaria. Some examples of hydrozoans are the freshwater jelly ('' Craspedacusta sowerbyi''), freshwater polyps ('' Hydra''), ''Obelia'', Portuguese man o' war (''Physalia physalis''), chondrophores (Porpitidae), and pink-hearted hydroids ('' Tubularia''). Anatomy Most hydrozoan species include both a polypoid and a medusoid stage in their life cycles, although a number of them have only one or the other. For example, ''Hydra'' has no medusoid stage, while '' Liriope'' lacks the polypoid st ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ediacaran
The Ediacaran ( ) is a geological period of the Neoproterozoic geologic era, Era that spans 96 million years from the end of the Cryogenian Period at 635 Million years ago, Mya to the beginning of the Cambrian Period at 538.8 Mya. It is the last period of the Proterozoic geologic eon, Eon as well as the last of the so-called "Precambrian supereon", before the beginning of the subsequent Cambrian Period marks the start of the Phanerozoic Eon, where recognizable fossil evidence of life becomes common. The Ediacaran Period is named after the Ediacara Hills of South Australia, where trace fossils of a diverse community of previously unrecognized lifeforms (later named the Ediacaran biota) were first discovered by geologist Reg Sprigg in 1946. Its status as an official geological period was ratified in 2004 by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), making it the first new geological period declared in 120 years. Although the period took namesake from the Ediacara Hills ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Staurozoa
Staurozoa is a class of Medusozoa (or jellyfish). It has one extant order: Stauromedusae (stalked jellyfishes) with a total of 50 known species. A fossil group called Conulariida has been proposed as a second order, although this is highly speculative. This extinct order is largely unknown and described as a possibly cnidarian clade of marine life with shell-like structures. Staurozoans are small animals () that live in marine environments, usually attached to seaweeds, rocks, or gravel.Collins, A. G. (n.d.). Staurozoa. ''AccessScience''. doi:10.1036/1097-8542.652700 They have a large antitropical distribution, a majority found in boreal or polar, near-shore, and shallow waters. Few staurozoans are found in warmer tropical and subtropical water environments of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Ocean basins, but most are known from the Northern Hemisphere. Over the years the number of discovered species has increased, with an estimated 50 species currently recognized. Information ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chrysaora Melanaster
''Chrysaora melanaster'', commonly known as the northern sea nettle or brown jellyfish, is a species of jellyfish native to the northern Pacific Ocean and adjacent parts of the Arctic Ocean. It is sometimes referred to as a Pacific sea nettle, but this name is also used for '' C. fuscescens''; the name Japanese sea nettle was also used for this species, but that name now exclusively refers to '' C. pacifica''. Although jellyfish kept in public aquariums sometimes are referred to as ''C. melanaster'', this is the result of the historical naming confusion and these actually are ''C. pacifica''. Description The medusa of the northern sea nettle can reach in diameter with tentacles growing up to . CNET newsChrysaora melanaster from "Census of Marine Life reveals hidden life in oceans" article (October 5, 2010). The number of tentacles is up to 24 (three per octant). It dwells at depths of up to 100 meters, where it feeds on copepods, larvacean Larvaceans, copelates or append ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animal
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Biology, biological Kingdom (biology), kingdom Animalia (). With few exceptions, animals heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, have myocytes and are motility, able to move, can reproduce sexually, and grow from a hollow sphere of Cell (biology), cells, the blastula, during embryonic development. Animals form a clade, meaning that they arose from a single common ancestor. Over 1.5 million extant taxon, living animal species have been species description, described, of which around 1.05 million are insects, over 85,000 are molluscs, and around 65,000 are vertebrates. It has been estimated there are as many as 7.77 million animal species on Earth. Animal body lengths range from to . They have complex ecologies and biological interaction, interactions with each other and their environments, forming intricate food webs. The scientific study of animals is known as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anthozoa
Anthozoa is one of the three subphyla of Cnidaria, along with Medusozoa and Endocnidozoa. It includes Sessility (motility), sessile marine invertebrates and invertebrates of brackish water, such as sea anemones, Scleractinia, stony corals, soft corals and sea pens. Almost all adult anthozoans are attached to the seabed, while their larvae can disperse as plankton. The basic unit of the adult is the polyp (zoology), polyp, an individual animal consisting of a cylindrical column topped by a disc with a central mouth surrounded by tentacles. Sea anemones are mostly solitary, but the majority of corals are colony (biology), colonial, being formed by the budding of new polyps from an original, founding individual. Colonies of stony corals are strengthened by mainly aragonite and other materials, and can take various massive, plate-like, bushy or leafy forms. Members of Anthozoa possess cnidocytes, a feature shared among other cnidarians such as the jellyfish, box jellyfish, box jellies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
