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Lophotrochozoan
Lophotrochozoa (, "crest/wheel animals") is a clade of protostome animals within the Spiralia. The taxon was established as a monophyletic group based on molecular evidence. The clade includes animals like annelids, molluscs, bryozoans, brachiopods, and platyhelminthes. Groups Lophotrochozoa was defined in 1995 as the "last common ancestor of the three traditional lophophorate taxa (brachiopods, bryozoans, and phoronid worms), the mollusks and the annelids, and all of the descendants of that common ancestor". It is a cladistic definition (a node-based name), so the affiliation to Lophotrochozoa of spiralian groups not mentioned directly in the definition depends on the topology of the spiralian tree of life, and in some phylogenetic hypotheses, Lophotrochozoa may even be synonymous to Spiralia. Nemertea and Orthonectida (if not directly considered as part of Annelida) are probably lophotrochozoan phyla; Dicyemida, Gastrotricha, and Platyhelminthes may be lophotrochozoans or pl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyolitha
Hyoliths are animals with small conical shells, known as fossils from the Palaeozoic era. They are at least considered as lophotrochozoan, and possibly being lophophorates, a group which includes the brachiopods, while others consider them as being basal lophotrochozoans, or even molluscs. Morphology The shell of a hyolith is typically one to four centimeters in length, triangular or elliptical in cross section. Some species have rings or stripes. It comprises two parts: the main conical shell (previously referred to as a ‘conch’) and a cap-like operculum. Some also had two curved supports known as ''helens'' They are calcareous – probably aragonitic All of these structures grew by marginal accretion. Shell microstructure The orthothecid shell has an internal layer with a microstructure of transverse bundles, and an external layer comprising longitudinal bundles. Helens Some hyoliths had helens, long structures that taper as they coil gently in a logarithmic spira ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oikozetetes
The halkieriids are a group of fossil organisms from the Lower to Middle Cambrian. Their eponymous genus is ''Halkieria'' , which has been found on almost every continent in Lower to Mid Cambrian deposits, forming a large component of the small shelly fossil assemblages. The best known species is ''Halkieria evangelista'', from the North Greenland Sirius Passet Lagerstätte, in which complete specimens were collected on an expedition in 1989. The fossils were described by Simon Conway Morris and John Peel in a short paper in 1990 in the journal ''Nature''. Later a more thorough description was undertaken in 1995 in the journal ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London'' and wider evolutionary implications were posed. The group is sometimes equated to Sachitida, although as originally envisaged, this group includes the wiwaxiids and is thus equivalent to the Halwaxiida. History of discovery Armor plates called "sclerites" had long been known as elements of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lophophorata
The Lophophorata are a Lophotrochozoan clade consisting of the Brachiozoa and the Bryozoa. They have a lophophore. Molecular phylogenetic analyses suggest that lophophorates are protostomes, but on morphological grounds they have been assessed as deuterostomes. Fossil finds of a segmented worm named Wufengella ''Wufengella'' is a genus of extinct camenellan " tommotiid" that lived during the Early Cambrian ( Stage 3). Described in 2022, the only species ''Wufengella bengtsonii'' was discovered from the Maotianshan Shales of Chiungchussu (Qiongzhusi) F ... suggest that they evolved from a worm close to annelids. References {{Protostome-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annelid
The annelids (Annelida , from Latin ', "little ring"), also known as the segmented worms, are a large phylum, with over 22,000 extant species including ragworms, earthworms, and leeches. The species exist in and have adapted to various ecologies – some in marine environments as distinct as tidal zones and hydrothermal vents, others in fresh water, and yet others in moist terrestrial environments. The Annelids are bilaterally symmetrical, triploblastic, coelomate, invertebrate organisms. They also have parapodia for locomotion. Most textbooks still use the traditional division into polychaetes (almost all marine), oligochaetes (which include earthworms) and leech-like species. Cladistic research since 1997 has radically changed this scheme, viewing leeches as a sub-group of oligochaetes and oligochaetes as a sub-group of polychaetes. In addition, the Pogonophora, Echiura and Sipuncula, previously regarded as separate phyla, are now regarded as sub-groups of polycha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caribbean Reef Squid
The Caribbean reef squid (''Sepioteuthis sepioidea''), commonly called the reef squid, is a species of small, torpedo-shaped squid with undulating fins that extend nearly the entire length of the body, approximately in length. In 2001, marine biologist Silvia Maciá discovered that squid were able to propel themselves up out of the water about and fly approximately before re-entry; a discovery which led to the identification of six species of flying squid. Distribution and habitat The Caribbean reef squid is found throughout the Caribbean Sea as well as off the coast of Florida, commonly in small Shoaling and schooling, schools of four to thirty in the shallows associated with reefs. The Habitat (ecology), habitat of the Reef Squid changes according to the squid's stage of life and size. New hatchlings tend to reside close to the shore in areas from below the surface on or under vegetation. Young small squid typically congregate in shallow turtle grass near islands and remain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brachiopod
Brachiopods (), phylum Brachiopoda, are a phylum of trochozoan animals that have hard "valves" (shells) on the upper and lower surfaces, unlike the left and right arrangement in bivalve molluscs. Brachiopod valves are hinged at the rear end, while the front can be opened for feeding or closed for protection. Two major categories are traditionally recognized, articulate and inarticulate brachiopods. The word "articulate" is used to describe the tooth-and-groove structures of the valve-hinge which is present in the articulate group, and absent from the inarticulate group. This is the leading diagnostic skeletal feature, by which the two main groups can be readily distinguished as fossils. Articulate brachiopods have toothed hinges and simple, vertically-oriented opening and closing muscles. Conversely, inarticulate brachiopods have weak, untoothed hinges and a more complex system of vertical and oblique (diagonal) muscles used to keep the two valves aligned. In many brachiopods, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Platyhelminthes
The flatworms, flat worms, Platyhelminthes, or platyhelminths (from the Greek language, Greek πλατύ, ''platy'', meaning "flat" and ἕλμινς (root: ἑλμινθ-), ''helminth-'', meaning "worm") are a Phylum (biology), phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, Segmentation (biology), unsegmented, soft-bodied invertebrates. Unlike other bilaterians, they are acoelomates (having no coelom, body cavity), and have no specialized circulatory system, circulatory and respiratory system, respiratory organ (anatomy), organs, which restricts them to having flattened shapes that allow oxygen and nutrients to pass through their bodies by diffusion. The digestive cavity has only one opening for both ingestion (intake of nutrients) and egestion (removal of undigested wastes); as a result, the food cannot be processed continuously. In traditional medicinal texts, Platyhelminthes are divided into Turbellaria, which are mostly non-parasitic animals such as planarians, and three entirely p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cladistics
Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups (" clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived characteristics ( synapomorphies'')'' that are not present in more distant groups and ancestors. However, from an empirical perspective, common ancestors are inferences based on a cladistic hypothesis of relationships of taxa whose character states can be observed. Theoretically, a last common ancestor and all its descendants constitute a (minimal) clade. Importantly, all descendants stay in their overarching ancestral clade. For example, if the terms ''worms'' or ''fishes'' were used within a ''strict'' cladistic framework, these terms would include humans. Many of these terms are normally used paraphyletically, outside of cladistics, e.g. as a 'grade', which are fruitless to precisely delineate, especially when including extinct species. R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orthonectida
Orthonectida () is a small phylum of poorly known parasites of marine invertebrates that are among the simplest of multi-cellular organisms. Members of this phylum are known as orthonectids. Biology The adults, which are the sexual stage, are microscopic wormlike animals, consisting of a single layer of ciliated outer cells surrounding a mass of sex cells. They swim freely within the bodies of their hosts, which include flatworms, polychaete worms, bivalve molluscs, and echinoderms. Most are gonochoristic, with separate male and female individuals, but a few species are hermaphroditic. When they are ready to reproduce, adults leave the host, and sperm from the males penetrate the bodies of the females to achieve internal fertilisation. The resulting zygote develops into a ciliated larva that escapes from the mother to seek out new hosts. Once it finds a host, the larva loses its cilia and develops into a syncytial plasmodium larva. This, in turn, breaks up into numerous individua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spiralia
The Spiralia are a morphologically diverse clade of protostome animals, including within their number the molluscs, annelids, platyhelminths and other taxa. The term ''Spiralia'' is applied to those phyla that exhibit canonical spiral cleavage, a pattern of early development found in most (but not all) members of the Lophotrochozoa. Distribution of spiralian development across phylogeny Members of the molluscs, annelids, platyhelminths and nemerteans have all been shown to exhibit spiral cleavage in its classical form. Other spiralian phyla (rotifers, brachiopods, phoronids, gastrotrichs, and bryozoans) are also said to display a derived form of spiral cleavage in at least a portion of their constituent species, although evidence for this is sparse. Lophotrochozoa within Spiralia Previously, spiral cleavage was thought to be unique to the Spiralia in the strictest sense—animals such as molluscs and annelids which exhibit classical spiral cleavage. The presence of spiral cleav ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dicyemida
Dicyemida, also known as Rhombozoa, is a phylum of tiny parasites that live in the renal appendages of cephalopods. Taxonomy Classification is controversial. Traditionally, dicyemids have been grouped with the Orthonectida in the Mesozoa, and, as of 2017, molecular evidence appears to confirm this. However, other molecular phylogenies have placed the dicyemids more closely related to the roundworms. Additional molecular evidence suggests that this phylum is derived from the ''Lophotrochozoa. The phylum is not divided in classes or orders, but contains three families, Conocyemidae, Dicyemidae, and Kantharellidae. Anatomy Adult dicyemids range in length from , and they can be easily viewed through a light microscope. They display eutely, a condition in which each adult individual of a given species has the same number of cells, making cell number a useful identifying character. Dicyemida lack respiratory, circulatory, excretory, digestive, and nervous systems. The organism' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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