| Clavelina picta | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Subphylum: | Tunicata |
| Class: | Ascidiacea |
| Order: | Aplousobranchia |
| Family: | Clavelinidae |
| Genus: | Clavelina |
| Species: | C. picta |
| Binomial name | |
| Clavelina picta | |
| Synonyms | |
Aplidium crassum Herdman, 1886 Contents | |
Clavelina picta, common name the painted tunicate, is a species of tunicate (sea squirt), in the genus Clavelina (the "little bottles"). These animals, like all ascidians, are sessile filter feeders.
Clavelina picta have variable cool colours. The rims of the siphons are reddish to dark purple. Their bodies are translucent. [2]
Clavelina picta are invertebrate filter feeders that feed by inducing a current into the branchial cavity from the incurrent siphon, with the help of the endostyle using cilia. [3] Mucus glands in the endostyle secrete mucus used to filter through the incoming water and food particles. Once sorted, the mucus is moved by cilia to move food into the esophagus along the dorsal groove. The diet of a tunicate is mostly made of algae and plankton. Tunicates also have tentacles that keep larger particles from entering the oral siphon.
Tunicates, including C. picta, also have defensive measures such as acids or allelochemicals to inhibit microbes and predator organisms from infecting or consuming them. [4] [5] These properties make them valuable to pharmaceutical companies. Vanadium, an elemental metal is also found in some tunicates, including C. picta, as a metabolic poison and this can help make them unpalatable to predators. [6]
Under the phylum Chordata, the Urochordates or Tunicata, do not have vertebrae but as larvae they have dorsal nerve cords and notochords. Tunicate larvae are also free-swimming and look like tadpoles. Larvae lose these distinctions when developing into an adult. [7] This is hypothesized to be related to the habitat tunicates have adapted to. Tunicates are the closest living relative to vertebrates. [8]
This species is found in the waters of Florida, Bahamas, and the Caribbean. [2] Colonies are found in or around reefs and are mesopelagic benthic organisms staying towards the shore.
Clavelina picta often occurs in large clusters attached to black coral, sponges, and gorgonians. Colonies may contain hundreds of individuals. [2] C. picta form colonies that may contain hundreds of individuals. Larvae settle and use papillae to attach to a surface. The larvae use sensory organs to find a suitable habitat. These larval organs include eye spots and otoliths. The eye spot is used to detect light and otoliths to help orient the larvae to gravity. [9]
Because of the toxicity or odor of their skin, tunicates have few predators but sharks, reef fish, sea stars, snails, and crabs will sometimes eat tunicates. [10]
Clavelina picta can reproduce through asexual and sexual means. Asexual reproduction occurs through blastogenesis. [11] Blastogenesis is reproduction through budding where somatic tissues develop into an embryo. Sexual reproduction in tunicates occurs by a single egg being fertilized. For the most part, tunicates are hermaphroditic, meaning they possess sperm and egg to reproduce independently. Fertilization occurs in the water through spawning, where the tunicates will release sperm and eggs to be fertilized and the larvae will settle next to adults. [12]
A tunicate is an exclusively marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata. This grouping is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords. The subphylum was at one time called Urochordata, and the term urochordates is still sometimes used for these animals. They are the only chordates that have lost their myomeric segmentation, with the possible exception of the seriation of the gill slits. However, doliolids still display segmentation of the muscle bands.
Thaliacea is a class of marine animals within the subphylum Tunicata, comprising the salps, pyrosomes and doliolids. Unlike their benthic relatives the ascidians, from which they are believed to have emerged, thaliaceans are free-floating (pelagic) for their entire lifespan. The group includes species with complex life cycles, with both solitary and colonial forms.
Larvaceans or appendicularians, class Appendicularia, are solitary, free-swimming tunicates found throughout the world's oceans. While larvaceans are filter feeders like most other tunicates, they keep their tadpole-like shape as adults, with the notochord running through the tail. They can be found in the pelagic zone, specifically in the photic zone, or sometimes deeper. They are transparent planktonic animals, usually ranging from 2 mm (0.079 in) to 8 mm (0.31 in) in body length including the tail, although giant larvaceans can reach up to 10 cm (3.9 in) in length.
Ascidiacea, commonly known as the ascidians or sea squirts, is a paraphyletic class in the subphylum Tunicata of sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders. Ascidians are characterized by a tough outer "tunic" made of a polysaccharide.
Ciona intestinalis is an ascidian, a tunicate with very soft tunic. Its Latin name literally means "pillar of intestines", referring to the fact that its body is a soft, translucent column-like structure, resembling a mass of intestines sprouting from a rock. It is a globally distributed cosmopolitan species. Since Linnaeus described the species, Ciona intestinalis has been used as a model invertebrate chordate in developmental biology and genomics. Studies conducted between 2005 and 2010 have shown that there are at least two, possibly four, sister species. More recently it has been shown that one of these species has already been described as Ciona robusta. By anthropogenic means, the species has invaded various parts of the world and is known as an invasive species.
The predatory tunicate, also known as the ghostfish, is a species of tunicate which lives anchored along deep-sea canyon walls and the seafloor. It is unique among other tunicates in that rather than being a filter feeder, it has adapted to life as an ambush predator. Its mouth-like siphon is quick to close whenever a small animal such as a crustacean or a fish drifts inside. Once the predatory tunicate catches a meal, it keeps its trap shut until the animal inside is digested. They are known to live in the Monterey Canyon at depths of 200–1,000 metres (660–3,280 ft). They mostly feed on zooplankton and tiny animals, and their bodies are roughly 5 inches (13 cm) across.
Botryllus schlosseri is a colonial ascidian tunicate. It is commonly known as the star tunicate, but it also has several other common names, including star ascidian and golden star tunicate. Colonies grow on slow-moving, submerged objects, plants, and animals in nearshore saltwater environments.
Aplidium californicum is a species of colonial sea squirt, a tunicate in the family Polyclinidae. It is commonly known as sea pork.
Ecteinascidia turbinata, commonly known as the mangrove tunicate, is a species of tunicate in the family Perophoridae. It was described to science in 1880 by William Abbott Herdman. The cancer drug trabectedin can be isolated from this species.
Didemnum molle is a species of colonial tunicate in the family Didemnidae. It is commonly known as the tall urn ascidian, the green barrel sea squirt or the green reef sea-squirt. It is native to the Red Sea and the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific region.
Ciona savignyi is a marine animal sometimes known as the Pacific transparent sea squirt or solitary sea squirt. It is a species of tunicates in the family Cionidae. It is found in shallow waters around Japan and has spread to the west coast of North America where it is regarded as an invasive species.
Molgula occulta is a species of solitary tunicate in the family Molgulidae. It is native to the north eastern Atlantic Ocean, the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The specific name occulta means "tailless" and refers to the tunicate's larva, which lacks the tail found in some other species in the genus Molgula.
Clavelina cylindrica is a species of tunicate in the genus Clavelina. It is found in shallow waters around Australia.
Molgula citrina is a species of solitary tunicate in the family Molgulidae. It is found on both sides of the northern Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. In 2008 it was found in Kachemak Bay in Alaska, the first time it had been detected in the Pacific Ocean.
Polyclinum planum is a compound ascidian commonly known as the elephant ear tunicate. It is an ascidian tunicate in the family Polyclinidae. Ascidians are also known as sea squirts.
Olfactores is a clade within the Chordata that comprises the Tunicata (Urochordata) and the Vertebrata. Olfactores represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, as the Cephalochordata are the only chordates not included in the clade. This clade is defined by a more advanced olfactory system which, in the immediate vertebrate generation, gave rise to nostrils.
Polyandrocarpa is a genus of ascidian tunicates within the family Styelidae.
Phallusia mammillata is a solitary marine tunicate of the ascidian class found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
Molgula occidentalis is a species of marine invertebrate of the family Molgulidae. The scientific name of the species was validated and published for the first time in 1883 by Traustedt. It is a soft-bodied, intertidal ascidian, sac-like filter feeders in the subphylum tunicate characterized by a hard outer covering known as a “tunic,” abundant in the shallow subtidal and intertidal zones of the Northern Gulf of Mexico, where they establish pseudopopulations.
Clavelina ossipandae, the skeleton panda sea squirt or skeleton panda ascidian, is a species of colonial ascidian, a group of sessile, marine filter-feeding invertebrates. Originally discovered near Kume Island in Japan by local divers, pictures of the animal attracted attention in the media for its appearance prior to its formal taxonomic description in 2024.