Introduction to Cnidaria

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Structure of Cnidarians

  • adults appear as free swimming medusae or sessile polyps 
  • radially symmetrical
  • nutrients taken in by phagocytosis or pinocytosis in the gastrovascular cavity
    • predigestion takes place intracellularly but digestion itself takes place within the cells
  • more complex than sponges
  • differentiated from other animals by cnidocytes
    • three types of cnidocytes: nematocysts, spirocysts, and ptychocysts
  • suggested that cnidarians evolved from triploblastic ancestors, despite being diploblastic 
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Taxonomy and Diversity of Cnidaria

  • Cnidaria: a phylum that comprises the sea anemones, jellyfish, and corals, and which are known from the late Precambrian 
  • ANTHOZOA: a class of exclusively polyploid, marine cnidarians that are solitary or colonial, and usually sedentary
  • MEDUSOZOA: a clade of Cnidaria that is often considered a subphylum, containing jellyfish, hydrozoans, and the parasitic Polypodiozoa
    • HYDROZOA: class also known as the hydroids or freshwater 'jellyfish'
    • SCYPHOZOA: class referred as the true jellyfish
    • STAUROZOA: class referred to as stalked jellyfish
    • CUBOZOA: class referred to as box jellyfish
    • POLYPODIOZOA: class that contains a single genus of cnidarians that parasitise the eggs of sturgeon and other fishes
  • MYXOZOA: a subphylum of aquatic cnidaria animals, also known as the slime animals, all of which are obligate parasites 
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Reproduction, Development, and Lifecycle of Cnidar

  • planula: a free-swimming coelenterate larva with a flattened, ciliated, solid body 
    • larval form of various cnidarians and some ctenophores
    • form either from a fertilised egg or from a polyp
  • polyp: one of two forms found in Cnidaria, are roughly cylindrical in shape and elongated at the axis of the vase-shaped body 
    • solitary polyps have an aboral end attached to the substrate by a pedal disc
    • colonies of polyps are either directly or indirectly connected to other polyps 
  • HYDROZOA reproduce by budding by longitudinal fission 
  • metamorphosis: a change of the form or nature of a thing into a completely different one

  • metagenesis: an alternation of generations in animals, especially a regular alternation of a sexual and an asexual generation 
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