| Homalozoa | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Cothurnocystis , Paleozoic era. | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Echinodermata |
| Subphylum: | † Homalozoa Whitehouse, 1941 |
| Groups included | |
| |
Homalozoa is an obsolete extinct subphylum of Paleozoic era echinoderms, prehistoric marine invertebrates. They are also referred to as carpoids. [1]
The Homalozoa lacked the typical pentamer body form of other echinoderms, but all were sessile animals. Instead all Homalozoans were markedly asymmetric, and were extremely variable in forms.
The body (theca) was covered with calcite plates with a number of openings. Their form is in some cases so unusual that it is unclear which openings are to be considered as mouth and anus. Many of them were stalked, similar to sea lilies (crinoids), but often their bodies were bent over, so that the mouth and anus projected forwards rather than upwards. Some forms, especially stylophorans, rested flat on the sea floor. [2]
In some forms the single ray (brachiole or aulacophore) possessed an ambulacral groove. [3]
It has been claimed that some forms possessed gills and gill slits. [4]
Homalozoans were traditionally considered to be stem-group echinoderms, [5] but had also been considered to lie in the stem lineage of the chordates (calcichordates). However, it is now generally accepted that homalozoans were echinoderms because their calcite skeleton was composed of the typical stereom crystalline structure. [6]
They include the unusual stylophorans (mitrates and cornutes), Homoiostelea (solutes), the Homostelea (cinctans), and the Ctenocystoidea (ctenoid-bearing homalozoans). [7] They have recently been recognised as a polyphyletic group. The stylophorans are now classified as a clade of the Crinozoa, whereas the other three are classified as clades of the Blastozoa. [7]
Unlike many other types of echinoderm, solute homalozoans lack radial symmetry (such as the five limbs of a starfish). [8] [9] Solutes are the sole order of the class Homoiostelea.
Solute fossils have an irregularly shaped flattened body covered in calcite plates, and are up to about 10 cm long. The body has two appendages, interpreted as a "feeding arm" at one end, bearing tube feet at its end, and a "stele" at the other, which may have been used by the animal to propel itself along the sea floor. [10]
A chordate is a deuterostomic animal belonging to the phylum Chordata. All chordates possess, at some point during their larval or adult stages, five distinctive physical characteristics (synapomorphies) that distinguish them from other taxa. These five synapomorphies are a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, an endostyle or thyroid, pharyngeal slits, and a post-anal tail. The name "chordate" comes from the first of these synapomorphies, the notochord, which plays a significant role in chordate body plan structuring and movements. Chordates are also bilaterally symmetric, have a coelom, possess a closed circulatory system, and exhibit metameric segmentation.
An echinoderm is any member of the phylum Echinodermata. The adults are recognisable by their radial symmetry, or pentamerous symmetry, and include starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers, as well as the sea lilies or "stone lilies". Adult echinoderms are found on the sea bed at every ocean depth, from the intertidal zone to the abyssal zone. The phylum contains about 7,000 living species, making it the second-largest grouping of deuterostomes, after the chordates. Echinoderms are the largest entirely marine phylum. The first definitive echinoderms appeared near the start of the Cambrian.
Machaeridia is an extinct group of armoured, segmented annelid worms, known from the Early Ordovician to Carboniferous. It consists of three distinct families: the plumulitids, turrilepadids and lepidocoleids.
Crinoids are marine invertebrates that make up the class Crinoidea. Crinoids that are attached to the sea bottom by a stalk in their juvenile form are commonly called sea lilies, while the unstalked forms, called feather stars or comatulids, are members of the largest crinoid order, Comatulida. Crinoids are echinoderms in the phylum Echinodermata, which also includes the starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers. They live in both shallow water and in depths as great as 9,000 meters (30,000 ft).
Bilateria is a large clade/infrakingdom of animals called bilaterians, characterized by bilateral symmetry during embryonic development. This means their body plans are laid around a longitudinal axis with a front and a rear end, as well as a left–right–symmetrical belly (ventral) and back (dorsal) surface. Nearly all bilaterians maintain a bilaterally symmetrical body as adults; the most notable exception is the echinoderms, which achieve secondary pentaradial symmetry as adults, but are bilaterally symmetrical as an embryo. Cephalization is also a characteristic feature among most bilaterians, where the special sense organs and central nerve ganglia become concentrated at the front/rostral end.
Invertebrate paleontology is sometimes described as invertebrate paleozoology or invertebrate paleobiology. Whether it is considered to be a subfield of paleontology, paleozoology, or paleobiology, this discipline is the scientific study of prehistoric invertebrates by analyzing invertebrate fossils in the geologic record.
Palaeozoology, also spelled as Paleozoology, is the branch of paleontology, paleobiology, or zoology dealing with the recovery and identification of multicellular animal remains from geological contexts, and the use of these fossils in the reconstruction of prehistoric environments and ancient ecosystems.
Stromatoporoidea is an extinct clade of sea sponges common in the fossil record from the Middle Ordovician to the Late Devonian. They can be characterized by their densely layered calcite skeletons lacking spicules. Stromatoporoids were among the most abundant and important reef-builders of their time, living close together in flat biostromes or elevated bioherms on soft tropical carbonate platforms.
Cothurnocystis is a genus of small enigmatic echinoderms that lived during the Ordovician. Individual animals had a flat boot-shaped body and a thin rod-shaped appendage that may be a stem, or analogous to a foot or a tail. Fossils of Cothurnocystis species have been found in Nevada, Scotland, Czech Republic, France and Morocco.
The stylophorans are an extinct, possibly polyphyletic group allied to the Paleozoic Era echinoderms, comprising the prehistoric cornutes and mitrates. It is synonymous with the subphylum Calcichordata. Their unusual appearances have led to a variety of very different reconstructions of their anatomy, how they lived, and their relationships to other organisms.
Marine invertebrates are the invertebrates that live in marine habitats. Invertebrate is a blanket term that includes all animals apart from the vertebrate members of the chordate phylum. Invertebrates lack a vertebral column, and some have evolved a shell or a hard exoskeleton. As on land and in the air, marine invertebrates have a large variety of body plans, and have been categorised into over 30 phyla. They make up most of the macroscopic life in the oceans.
Mitrates are an extinct group of stem group echinoderms, which may be closely related to the hemichordates. Along with the cornutes, they form one half of the Stylophora.
Deuterostomes are bilaterian animals of the superphylum Deuterostomia, typically characterized by their anus forming before the mouth during embryonic development. The three major clades of extant deuterostomes include chordates, echinoderms and hemichordates.
Cystoidea is a class of extinct crinozoan echinoderms, termed cystoids, that lived attached to the sea floor by stalks. They existed during the Paleozoic Era, in the Middle Ordovician and Silurian Periods, until their extinction in the Devonian Period.
Pelmatozoa was once a clade of Phylum Echinodermata. It included stalked and sedentary echinoderms. The main class of Pelmatozoa were the Crinoidea which includes sea lily and feather star.
The calcichordate hypothesis holds that each separate lineage of chordate evolved from its own lineage of mitrate, and thus the echinoderms and the chordates are sister groups, with the hemichordates as an out-group.
Stereom is a calcium carbonate material that makes up the internal skeletons found in all echinoderms, both living and fossilized forms. It is a sponge-like porous structure which, in a sea urchin may be 50% by volume living cells, and the rest being a matrix of calcite crystals. The size of openings in stereom varies in different species and in different places within the same organism. When an echinoderm becomes a fossil, microscopic examination is used to reveal the structure and such examination is often an important tool to classify the fossil as an echinoderm or related creature.
Cincta is an extinct class of echinoderms that lived only in the Middle Cambrian epoch. Homostelea is a junior synonym. The classification of cinctans is controversial, but they are probably part of the echinoderm stem group.
Soluta is an extinct class of echinoderms that lived from the Middle Cambrian to the Early Devonian. The class is also known by its junior synonym Homoiostelea. Soluta is one of the four "carpoid" classes, alongside Ctenocystoidea, Cincta, and Stylophora, which made up the obsolete subphylum Homalozoa. Solutes were asymmetric animals with a stereom skeleton and two appendages, an arm extending anteriorly and a posterior appendage called a homoiostele.
Ctenocystoidea is an extinct clade of echinoderms, which lived during the Cambrian and Ordovician periods. Unlike other echinoderms, ctenocystoids had bilateral symmetry, or were only very slightly asymmetrical. They are believed to be one of the earliest-diverging branches of echinoderms, with their bilateral symmetry a trait shared with other deuterostomes. Ctenocystoids were once classified in the taxon Homalozoa, also known as Carpoidea, alongside cinctans, solutes, and stylophorans. Homalozoa is now recognized as a polyphyletic group of echinoderms without radial symmetry. Ctenocystoids were geographically widespread during the Middle Cambrian, with one species surviving into the Late Ordovician.