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Cnidaria is a phylum under kingdom Animalia containing over 11,000 species of aquatic animals found both in fresh water and marine environments, including jellyfish, hydroids, sea anemones, corals and some of the smallest marine parasites. Their distinguishing features are a decentralized nervous system distributed throughout a gelatinous body and the presence of cnidocytes or cnidoblasts, specialized cells with ejectable flagella used mainly for envenomation and capturing prey. Their bodies consist of mesoglea, a non-living, jelly-like substance, sandwiched between two layers of epithelium that are mostly one cell thick. Cnidarians are also some of the only animals that can reproduce both sexually and asexually.
Hydra is a genus of small freshwater hydrozoans of the phylum Cnidaria. They are native to the temperate and tropical regions. The genus was named by Linnaeus in 1758 after the Hydra, which was the many-headed beast of myth defeated by Heracles, as when the animal has a part severed, it will regenerate much like the mythical hydra’s heads. Biologists are especially interested in Hydra because of their regenerative ability; they do not appear to die of old age, or to age at all.
A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal frame to which the organs and soft tissues attach; and the hydroskeleton, a flexible internal structure supported by the hydrostatic pressure of body fluids.
Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation.
The Scyphozoa are an exclusively marine class of the phylum Cnidaria, referred to as the true jellyfish.
Ctenophora comprise a phylum of marine invertebrates, commonly known as comb jellies, that inhabit sea waters worldwide. They are notable for the groups of cilia they use for swimming, and they are the largest animals to swim with the help of cilia.
Anthozoa is a class of marine invertebrates which includes the sea anemones, stony corals and soft corals. Adult anthozoans are almost all attached to the seabed, while their larvae can disperse as part of the plankton. The basic unit of the adult is the polyp; this consists of a cylindrical column topped by a disc with a central mouth surrounded by tentacles. Sea anemones are mostly solitary, but the majority of corals are colonial, being formed by the budding of new polyps from an original, founding individual. Colonies are strengthened by calcium carbonate and other materials and take various massive, plate-like, bushy or leafy forms.
The gastrovascular cavity is the primary organ of digestion and circulation in two major animal phyla: the Coelenterates or cnidarians and Platyhelminthes (flatworms). The cavity may be extensively branched into a system of canals. In cnidarians, the gastrovascular system is also known as the coelenteron, and is commonly known as a "blind gut" or "blind sac", since food enters and waste exits through the same orifice.
A nerve net consists of interconnected neurons lacking a brain or any form of cephalization. While organisms with bilateral body symmetry are normally associated with a condensation of neurons or, in more advanced forms, a central nervous system, organisms with radial symmetry are associated with nerve nets, and are found in members of the Ctenophora, Cnidaria, and Echinodermata phyla, all of which are found in marine environments. In the Xenacoelomorpha, a phylum of bilaterally symmetrical animals, members of the subphylum Xenoturbellida also possess a nerve net. Nerve nets can provide animals with the ability to sense objects through the use of the sensory neurons within the nerve net.
In zoology, a tentacle is a flexible, mobile, and elongated organ present in some species of animals, most of them invertebrates. In animal anatomy, tentacles usually occur in one or more pairs. Anatomically, the tentacles of animals work mainly like muscular hydrostats. Most forms of tentacles are used for grasping and feeding. Many are sensory organs, variously receptive to touch, vision, or to the smell or taste of particular foods or threats. Examples of such tentacles are the eyestalks of various kinds of snails. Some kinds of tentacles have both sensory and manipulatory functions.
Coelenterata is a term encompassing the animal phyla Cnidaria and Ctenophora. The name comes from Ancient Greek κοῖλος (koîlos) 'hollow', and ἔντερον (énteron) 'intestine', referring to the hollow body cavity common to these two phyla. They have very simple tissue organization, with only two layers of cells, along with a middle undifferentiated layer called mesoglea, and radial symmetry. Some examples are corals, which are typically colonial; hydrae, jellyfish, sea anemones, and Aurelia, which are solitary; Pennatula; Portuguese man o' war; Gorgonia; and Physalia. Coelenterata lack a specialized circulatory system, relying instead on diffusion across the tissue layers.
Gastrodermis is the inner layer of cells that serves as a lining membrane of the gastrovascular cavity in cnidarians. It is distinct from the outer epidermis and the inner dermis and is primarily associated with the ventral side of cnidarians. It is composed of specialized cells responsible for several vital physiological processes. The term is also used for the analogous inner epithelial layer of ctenophores.
Phacellophora camtschatica, commonly known as the fried egg jellyfish or egg-yolk jellyfish, is a very large jellyfish in the family Phacellophoridae. This species can be easily identified by the yellow coloration in the center of its body which closely resembles an egg yolk, hence its common name. Some individuals can have a bell close to 60 cm (2 ft) in diameter, and most individuals have 16 clusters of up to a few dozen tentacles, each up to 6 m (20 ft) long. A smaller jellyfish, Cotylorhiza tuberculata, typically found in warmer water, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea, is also popularly called a fried egg jellyfish. Also, P. camtschatica is sometimes confused with the Lion's mane jellyfish.
Mesenchyme is a type of loosely organized animal embryonic connective tissue of undifferentiated cells that give rise to most tissues, such as skin, blood or bone. The interactions between mesenchyme and epithelium help to form nearly every organ in the developing embryo.
The mesohyl, formerly known as mesenchyme or as mesoglea, is the gelatinous matrix within a sponge. It fills the space between the external pinacoderm and the internal choanoderm. The mesohyl resembles a type of connective tissue and contains several amoeboid cells such as amebocytes, as well as fibrils and skeletal elements. For a long time, it has been largely accepted that sponges lack true tissue, but it is currently debated as to whether mesohyl and pinacoderm layers are tissues.
Turritopsis dohrnii, also known as the immortal jellyfish, is a species of small, biologically immortal jellyfish found worldwide in temperate to tropic waters. It is one of the few known cases of animals capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary individual. Others include the jellyfish Laodicea undulata and species of the genus Aurelia.
Sea anemones are a group of predatory marine invertebrates constituting the order Actiniaria. Because of their colourful appearance, they are named after the Anemone, a terrestrial flowering plant. Sea anemones are classified in the phylum Cnidaria, class Anthozoa, subclass Hexacorallia. As cnidarians, sea anemones are related to corals, jellyfish, tube-dwelling anemones, and Hydra. Unlike jellyfish, sea anemones do not have a medusa stage in their life cycle.
Cydippida is an order of comb jellies. They are distinguished from other comb jellies by their spherical or oval bodies, and the fact their tentacles are branched, and can be retracted into pouches on either side of the pharynx. The order is not monophyletic, that is, more than one common ancestor is believed to exist.
Catostylidae is a family of jellyfish, their common name is fat-armed jellies. Members of this family are characterized by their thick, sausage-like oral arms. Members of the family Catostylidae are small marine jellyfish with domed bells. The eight short oral arms are broad and three-sided. These jellies do sting but usually only leave minor burns.
Polypodium is a genus of cnidarians that parasitizes in the eggs of sturgeon and similar fishes. It is one of the few metazoans (animals) that live inside the cells of other animals.
References
- ↑ Sarras, M. P.; Madden, M. E.; Zhang, X.; Gunwar, S.; Huff, J. K.; Hudson, B. G. (1991). "Extracellular matrix (mesoglea) of Hydra vulgaris". Developmental Biology. 148 (2): 481–494. doi:10.1016/0012-1606(91)90266-6. PMID 1743396.
- 1 2 Josephson, R. (2004). "The Neural Control of Behavior in Sea Anemones". Journal of Experimental Biology. 207 (14): 2371–2372. doi: 10.1242/jeb.01059 . PMID 15184508.
- ↑ Werner, B.; Chapman, D. M.; Cutress, C. E. (1976). "Muscular and nervous systems of the cubopolyp (Cnidaria)". Experientia. 32 (8): 1047–1049. doi:10.1007/BF01933964. S2CID 34578064.
- ↑ Hernandez-Nicaise, M. L. (1973). "The nervous system of ctenophores III. Ultrastructure of synapses". Journal of Neurocytology. 2 (3): 249–263. doi:10.1007/BF01104029. PMID 9224490. S2CID 38585544.
- ↑ Hutton, Danielle M. C.; Smith, Valerie J. (1996). "Antibacterial Properties of Isolated Amoebocytes from the Sea Anemone Actinia equina". Biological Bulletin. 191 (3): 441–451. doi:10.2307/1543017. JSTOR 1543017. PMID 29215925.
- ↑ Campbell, Richard D. (1976). "Elimination by Hydra interstitial and nerve cells by means of colchicine". Journal of Cell Science. 21 (1): 1–13. doi: 10.1242/jcs.21.1.1 . PMID 932105.
- ↑ Kier, W. M. (2012). "The diversity of hydrostatic skeletons". Journal of Experimental Biology. 215 (8): 1247–1257. doi: 10.1242/jeb.056549 . PMID 22442361.
- ↑ Hirose, Euichi; Sakai, Daisuke; Iida, Akane; Obayashi, Yumiko; Nishikawa, Jun (2021-01-06). "Exumbrellar Surface of Jellyfish: A Comparative Fine Structure Study with Remarks on Surface Reflectance". Zoological Science. 38 (2): 170–178. doi: 10.2108/zs200111 . ISSN 0289-0003. PMID 33812356. S2CID 232411684.
- ↑ Brusca & Brusca (2003), p. 220.
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