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Lophophorates
The lophophore () is a characteristic feeding organ possessed by four major groups of animals: the Brachiopoda, Bryozoa, Hyolitha, and Phoronida, which collectively constitute the protostome group Lophophorata.Introduction to the Lophotrochozoa – Retrieved 3 May 2010 All lophophores are found in aquatic organisms. Etymology ''Lophophore'' is derived from the Greek ''lophos'' (crest, tuft) and ''-phore'', ''-phoros'' (φορος) (bearing), a derivative of ''phérein'' (φέρειν) (to bear); thus crest-bearing.Characteristics The lophophore can most easily be described as a ring of ted tentacles surrounding the mouth, but it is often horseshoe-shaped ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bryozoa
Bryozoa (also known as the Polyzoa, Ectoprocta or commonly as moss animals) are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about long, they have a special feeding structure called a lophophore, a "crown" of tentacles used for filter feeding. Most marine bryozoans live in tropical waters, but a few are found in oceanic trenches and polar waters. The bryozoans are classified as the marine bryozoans (Stenolaemata), freshwater bryozoans (Phylactolaemata), and mostly-marine bryozoans (Gymnolaemata), a few members of which prefer brackish water. 5,869living species are known. At least two genera are solitary (''Aethozooides'' and ''Monobryozoon''); the rest are colonial. The terms Polyzoa and Bryozoa were introduced in 1830 and 1831, respectively. Soon after it was named, another group of animals was discovered whose filtering mechanism looked similar, so it was included in Bryozoa until 1869, when the two groups were no ... [...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] |
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] |
Lophotrochozoa
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brachiopods
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 s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Freshwater Bryozoan234
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include non- salty mineral-rich waters such as chalybeate springs. Fresh water may encompass frozen and meltwater in ice sheets, ice caps, glaciers, snowfields and icebergs, natural precipitations such as rainfall, snowfall, hail/ sleet and graupel, and surface runoffs that form inland bodies of water such as wetlands, ponds, lakes, rivers, streams, as well as groundwater contained in aquifers, subterranean rivers and lakes. Fresh water is the water resource that is of the most and immediate use to humans. Water is critical to the survival of all living organisms. Many organisms can thrive on salt water, but the great majority of higher plants and most insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds need fresh water to survive. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phylogeny
A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological species or other entities based upon similarities and differences in their physical or genetic characteristics. All life on Earth is part of a single phylogenetic tree, indicating common ancestry. In a ''rooted'' phylogenetic tree, each node with descendants represents the inferred most recent common ancestor of those descendants, and the edge lengths in some trees may be interpreted as time estimates. Each node is called a taxonomic unit. Internal nodes are generally called hypothetical taxonomic units, as they cannot be directly observed. Trees are useful in fields of biology such as bioinformatics, systematics, and phylogenetics. ''Unrooted'' trees illustrate only the relatedness of the leaf nodes and do not require the ancestral root to be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tentaculite
''Tentaculites'' is an extinct genus of conical fossils of uncertain affinity, class Tentaculita, although it is not the only member of the class. It is known from Lower Ordovician to Upper Devonian deposits both as calcitic shells with a brachiopod-like microstructure and carbonaceous 'linings'. The "tentaculites" (i.e. tentaculita) are also referred to as the styliolinids. Affinity The taxonomic classification of tentaculitids is uncertain. Some grouped them with pteropods, but there is no modern support and only superficial similarity. They may also be related to other conical shells of uncertain affinity including cornulitids, ''Anticalyptraea'', microconchids and trypanoporids. Their shell microstructure has warranted their comparison with the brachiopods and phoronids, and the possible Ediacaran lophophorate ''Namacalathus''. Morphology Tentaculitids have ribbed, cone-shaped shells which range in length from 5 to 20 mm. Some species septate; their embryonic s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cornulitids
Cornulitida is an extinct order of encrusting animals from class Tentaculita, which were common around the globe in the Ordovician to Devonian oceans, and survived until the Carboniferous. The organisms had shells, and were subject to predation by boring and other means from the Ordovician onwards. Many survived attacks by predators. Several cornulitids were endobiotic symbionts in the stromatoporoids and tabulates. Their affinity is unknown; they have been placed in many phyla, and have been considered worms, corals, molluscs and more. They appear to be closely related to other taxa of uncertain affinity, including the microconchids, trypanoporids and tentaculitid Tentaculita is an extinct class of uncertain placement ranging from the Early Ordovician to the Middle Jurassic. They were suspension feeders with a near worldwide distribution. For a more thorough discussion, see ''Tentaculites''. The presenc ...s. References {{Taxonbar, from=Q5171922 Tentaculita M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microconchida
The order Microconchida is a group of small, spirally-coiled, encrusting fossil "worm" tubes from the class Tentaculita found from the Upper Ordovician to the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) around the world. They have lamellar calcitic shells, usually with pseudopunctae or punctae and a bulb-like origin. Many were long misidentified as the polychaete annelid ''Spirorbis'' until studies of shell microstructure and formation showed significant differences. All pre-Cretaceous "''Spirorbis''" fossils are now known to be microconchids. Their classification at the phylum level is still debated. Most likely they are some form of lophophorate, a group which includes phoronids, bryozoans and brachiopods. Microconchids may be closely related to the other encrusting tentaculitoid tubeworms, such as '' Anticalyptraea'', trypanoporids and cornulitids. References * Wilson, M.A., Yancey, T.E. and Vinn, O. 2011. "A new microconchid tubeworm from the Lower Permian (Artinskian) of central Texas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hederellid
Hederellids are extinct colonial animals with calcitic tubular branching exoskeletons. They range from the Silurian to the Permian and were most common in the Devonian period. They are more properly known as "hederelloids" because they were originally defined as a suborder by Bassler (1939), who described about 130 species. Although they have traditionally been considered bryozoans, they are clearly not because of their branching patterns, lack of an astogenetic gradient, skeletal microstructure, and wide range in tube diameters (Wilson and Taylor, 2001). Work continues on assessing the true affinities of hederelloids, but they appear to be most closely related to phoronids and other lophophorates (Taylor and Wilson, 2008; Taylor et al., 2010). Classification *Family Hederellidae **Genus '' Diversipora'' **Genus '' Hederella'' *Family Reptariidae **Genus '' Cystoporella'' **Genus '' Hederopsis'' **Genus '' Hernodia'' File:HedCloseUp.JPG, Three hederelloid species on a Devonian ru ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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