''Thaumastoderma heideri'' (Greek; Thauma: a wonder, Derma: skin) belongs to the phylum

Gastrotricha The gastrotrichs (phylum Gastrotricha), commonly referred to as hairybellies or hairybacks, are a group of microscopic (0.06-3.0 mm), worm-like, acoelomate animals, and are widely distributed and abundant in freshwater and marine environme ...

and the order

Macrodasyida Macrodasyida is an order of gastrotrichs. Members of this order are somewhat worm-like in form, and not more than 1 to 1.5 mm in length. Macrodasyids are almost in entirely marine and live in the sediment in marine or brackish water, but tw ...

, which are worm shaped, mainly marine species of

meiofauna Meiobenthos, also called meiofauna, are small benthic invertebrates that live in both marine and fresh water environments. The term ''meiofauna'' loosely defines a group of organisms by their size, larger than microfauna but smaller than macrof ...

. They live in coarser sand and like the rest of the gastrotrichs their movement is very slow. The family Thaumastodermatidae includes more than 130 species and it can be found widely across the globe.

Morphology

''Thaumastoderma heideri'' is 160-190 μm in length. The body shape looks like that of a normal Gastrotrichs (worm-like) and is characteristic by its hairy body. The head region can be recognized by a lateral constriction of the body. The head bears three tentacles on each side. Two of them are spoon shaped and the third wider than the second. The body is covered with scales. Protruding from these is pointy cirrus which occurs in the same pattern on each side.

Ecology

The species is widely distributed in

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

environments in European waters, parts of the North Atlantic, the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

and the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ...

. It lives in shallow waters (< 400 meters) and areas with a sandy ocean bed. It is a

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from ancient Greek, βένθος (bénthos), meaning "t ...

organism found in the sediments at the bottom.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2808417 Gastrotricha Animals described in 1927