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Pyrosomella Verticillata
''Pyrosomella verticillata'', the fire salp, is a species of colonial pyrosome with an Indo-Pacific distribution. Description An individual ''P. verticillata'' zooid is typically about 4 mm long, while colonies are up to 5 cm long and 3 cm in diameter, and oval to oblong in shape. The wall of the colony is transparent and colorless. Distribution The species occurs in the warm Indo-Pacific and from the Cape of Good Hope to Japan, and has also been reported from the southwest Atlantic off Rio de Janeiro. Bioluminescence The species is bioluminescent, with each zooid possessing a pair of luminescent organs next to the oral siphon, within which light production is probably carried out by symbiotic bacteria. Colonies respond to incoming light (e.g. artificial stimulation) by lighting up, and this phenomenon spreads among adjacent zooids until the entire colony is lit up; this may spread to adjacent colonies. Colonies may sustain light emission for extended time p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyrosome
Pyrosomes are free-floating colonial tunicates in family Pyrosomatidae. Pyrosomes consist of colonies of small Zooids. There are three genera, '' Pyrosoma'', '' Pyrosomella'' and '' Pyrostremma'', and eight species. They usually live in the upper layers of the open ocean in warm seas, although some may be found at greater depths. Pyrosomes exhibit bioluminescence, and the name ''Pyrosoma'' derives from the Greek words ''pyro'', meaning "fire", and ''soma'', meaning "body". Pyrosomes are hermaphroditic and reproduce via a two-part process. They have the ability to create massive blooms that may affect pelagic food webs. Description Pyrosomes are commonly called "sea pickles", due to their tube-like gelatinous structure. Other nicknames include "sea worms", "sea squirts", "fire bodies", and "cockroaches of the sea". Each zooid opens both to the inside and outside of the "tube". The zooids draw in ocean water from the outside into their internal filtering mesh called the branchia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zooid
A zooid or zoöid is an animal that is part of a colonial animal. This lifestyle has been adopted by animals from separate unrelated taxa. Zooids are multicellular; their structure is similar to that of other solitary animals. The zooids can either be directly connected by tissue (e.g. corals, Catenulida, Siphonophorae, Pyrosome or Ectoprocta) or share a common exoskeleton (e.g. Bryozoa or Pterobranchia). The colonial organism as a whole is called a ''zoon'' , plural ''zoa'' (from Ancient Greek meaning animal; plural , ). Zooids can exhibit polymorphism. For instance, extant bryozoans may have zooids adapted for different functions, such as feeding, anchoring the colony to the substratum and for brooding embryos. However, fossil bryozoans are only known by the colony structures that the zooids formed during life. There are correlations between the size of some zooids and temperature. Variations in zooid size within colonies of fossils can be used as an indicator of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cape Of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, based on the misbelief that the Cape was the dividing point between the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic and Indian Ocean, Indian oceans. In fact, the southernmost point of Africa is Cape Agulhas about to the east-southeast. The currents of the two oceans meet at the point where the warm-water Agulhas current meets the cold-water Benguela current and turns back on itself. That oceanic meeting point fluctuates between Cape Agulhas and Cape Point (about east of the Cape of Good Hope). When following the western side of the African coastline from the equator, however, the Cape of Good Hope marks the point where a ship begins to travel more eastward than southward. Thus, the first modern rounding of the cape in 1487 by Portuguese discoveries, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bioluminescence
Bioluminescence is the emission of light during a chemiluminescence reaction by living organisms. Bioluminescence occurs in multifarious organisms ranging from marine vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as in some Fungus, fungi, microorganisms including some bioluminescent bacteria, Dinoflagellate, dinoflagellates and terrestrial arthropods such as Firefly, fireflies. In some animals, the light is bacteriogenic, produced by symbiosis, symbiotic bacteria such as those from the genus ''Vibrio''; in others, it is autogenic, produced by the animals themselves. In most cases, the principal chemical reaction in bioluminescence involves the reaction of a substrate called luciferin and an enzyme, called luciferase. Because these are generic names, luciferins and luciferases are often distinguished by the species or group, e.g. firefly luciferin or Vargulin, cypridina luciferin. In all characterized cases, the enzyme Catalysis, catalyzes the Redox, oxidation of the luciferin resultin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cilia
The cilium (: cilia; ; in Medieval Latin and in anatomy, ''cilium'') is a short hair-like membrane protrusion from many types of eukaryotic cell. (Cilia are absent in bacteria and archaea.) The cilium has the shape of a slender threadlike projection that extends from the surface of the much larger cell body. Eukaryotic flagella found on sperm cells and many protozoans have a similar structure to motile cilia that enables swimming through liquids; they are longer than cilia and have a different undulating motion. There are two major classes of cilia: ''motile'' and ''non-motile'' cilia, each with two subtypes, giving four types in all. A cell will typically have one primary cilium or many motile cilia. The structure of the cilium core, called the axoneme, determines the cilium class. Most motile cilia have a central pair of single microtubules surrounded by nine pairs of double microtubules called a 9+2 axoneme. Most non-motile cilia have a 9+0 axoneme that lacks the central pai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pyrosomatidae
Pyrosomes are free-floating colonial tunicates in family Pyrosomatidae. Pyrosomes consist of colonies of small Zooids. There are three genera, ''Pyrosoma'', '' Pyrosomella'' and '' Pyrostremma'', and eight species. They usually live in the upper layers of the open ocean in warm seas, although some may be found at greater depths. Pyrosomes exhibit bioluminescence, and the name ''Pyrosoma'' derives from the Greek words ''pyro'', meaning "fire", and ''soma'', meaning "body". Pyrosomes are hermaphroditic and reproduce via a two-part process. They have the ability to create massive blooms that may affect pelagic food webs. Description Pyrosomes are commonly called "sea pickles", due to their tube-like gelatinous structure. Other nicknames include "sea worms", "sea squirts", "fire bodies", and "cockroaches of the sea". Each zooid opens both to the inside and outside of the "tube". The zooids draw in ocean water from the outside into their internal filtering mesh called the branchial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
