Nemertodermatida is a class of
Acoelomorpha
Acoelomorpha is a subphylum of very simple and small soft-bodied organism, soft-bodied animals with planula-like features which live in marine (ocean), marine or brackish waters. They usually live between grains of sediment, swimming as plankton, ...
, comprising 18 species of millimetre-sized
turbellariform, mostly interstitial worms.
Taxonomy
The order Nemertodermatida contains two families with 6 genera.
The high level of
cryptic diversity
In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...
in this
meiofauna
Meiobenthos, also called meiofauna, are small benthic invertebrates that live in marine or freshwater environments, or both. The term ''meiofauna'' loosely defines a group of organisms by their sizelarger than microfauna but smaller than macrof ...
group however implies that the number of nemertodermatid taxa may be underestimated.
Ascopariidae
The family
Ascopariidae Sterrer, 1998 contains two genera.
* ''
Ascoparia''
Sterrer, 1998
* ''
Flagellophora''
Faubel & Dorjes, 1978
There are 3 species in the family ''Ascopariidae''.
Nemertodermatidae
The family
Nemertodermatidae
Nemertodermatidae is a family of wormlike animals in the phylum Acoelomorpha. They are similar to the flatworms of the phylum Platyhelminthes, and were traditionally classified as such.
These are hermaphroditic marine worms with ciliated bodies ...
Steinböck, 1930 contains four genera.
* ''
Meara''
* ''
Nemertinoides''
* ''
Nemertoderma''
* ''
Sterreria''
There are 15 species in the family ''Nemertodermatidae''.
Notes
References
Animal classes
{{Xenacoelomorpha-stub