| Phoronopsis californica | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Phoronida |
| Family: | Phoronidae |
| Genus: | Phoronopsis |
| Species: | P. californica |
| Binomial name | |
| Phoronopsis californica Hilton, 1930 [1] | |
Phoronopsis californica is a species of marine horseshoe worm in the phylum Phoronida. It was first described as a new species by William Hilton in 1930 when he found it at Balboa Bay in Newport Beach, California. [2]
Phoronopsis californica lives in a stiff tube encrusted with sand and embedded in sandy or muddy sediment. The tube is up to 250 millimetres long, 3 millimetres wide at the open end and twice this diameter in the middle. There is a bulge at the other end, which is sealed. At the collar, just below the lophophore or feeding organ, the worm has the marked involution of the epidermis which distinguishes the genus Phoronopsis . [2] When the worm is extended it can reach 450 millimetres in length with a diameter of up to 5 millimetres. The colour varies but is usually orangish-brown with a red, orange or green lophophore. This organ has about 1,500 tentacles, each some 2.5 millimetres long, arranged in a pair of helicoid whorls with four to seven coils. These project from the seabed and are the only part of the animal normally visible. They can be retracted back into the tube if danger threatens or when the animal is no longer submerged. [3]
Phoronopsis californica occurs in shallow coastal waters in California and in temperate European waters near Spain, Portugal and Madeira. [1] It lives singly and builds its tube in soft sediments varying from mud to coarse sand. It is found on the lower shore and in the neritic zone down to a depth of thirty metres. [3] In the Mediterranean Sea it is found growing in association with the sea grass, Cymodocea nodosa . [4]
Phoronopsis californica is a filter feeder. Numerous cilia on the tentacles create a current which brings food particles within reach. These then get trapped in mucus and moved towards the mouth. At the same time, the tentacles act as gills for gas exchange. [5]
Individual worms are either male or female but little is known of the process of reproduction in this species and the larval form, Actinotrocha californica, has not yet been identified. [6]
Bryozoa are a phylum of simple, aquatic invertebrate animals, nearly all living in sedentary colonies. Typically about 0.5 millimetres 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. 5,869 living species are known. Originally all of the crown group Bryozoa were colonial, but as an adaptation to a mesopsammal life or to deep‐sea habitats, secondarily solitary forms have since evolved. Solitary species has been described in four genera; Aethozooides, Aethozoon, Franzenella and Monobryozoon). The latter having a statocyst‐like organ with a supposed excretory function.
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Any worm that lives in a marine environment is considered a water worm. Marine worms are found in several different phyla, including the Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Chaetognatha, Hemichordata, and Phoronida. For a list of marine animals that have been called "sea worms", see sea worm.
Phoronis is one of the two genera of the horseshoe worm family (Phoronidae), in the phylum Phoronida. The body has two sections, each with its own coelom. There is a specialist feeding structure, the lophophore, which is an extension of the wall of the coelom and is surrounded by tentacles. The gut is U-shaped. The diagnostic feature that distinguishes this genus is the lack of epidermal invagination at the base of the lophophore. These worms are filter feeders. They live on hard substrates or soft sediments in marine environments throughout the world. They have different modes of reproduction which help with their success.
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.
Phoronids are a small phylum of marine animals that filter-feed with a lophophore, and build upright tubes of chitin to support and protect their soft bodies. They live in most of the oceans and seas, including the Arctic Ocean but excluding the Antarctic Ocean, and between the intertidal zone and about 400 meters down. Most adult phoronids are 2 cm long and about 1.5 mm wide, although the largest are 50 cm long.
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Sabellaria alveolata,, is a reef-forming polychaete. It is distributed around the Mediterranean Sea, and from the north Atlantic Ocean to south Morocco. It is also found in the British Isles at its northern limit in the northeast Atlantic. Its common name is derived from the honeycomb-like pattern it creates when building its tube reefs.
Lagis koreni, commonly known as the trumpet worm, is a species of marine polychaete worm found in European waters. It lives within a narrow conical tube made of grains of sand and shell fragments.
Phoronopsis is a genus of horseshoe worm in the family Phoronidae, in the phylum Phoronida. The members of the genus live in tubes at the bottom of the sea.
Phoronis psammophila is a species of marine horseshoe worm in the phylum Phoronida. It lives in a tube projecting from the sea floor in shallow seas around the world.
Neosabellaria cementarium is a species of marine tube worm in the family Sabellariidae, perhaps better known by its previous name, Sabellaria cementarium. It is found in the North Pacific Ocean.
Cerianthus lloydii is a species of tube-dwelling sea anemone in the family Cerianthidae. It is sometimes called the lesser cylinder anemone and is found in shallow seas around the coasts of north west Europe.
Sabella spallanzanii is a species of marine polychaete worms in the family Sabellidae. Common names include the Mediterranean fanworm, the feather duster worm, the European fan worm and the pencil worm. It is native to shallow waters in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. It has spread to various other parts of the world and is included on the Global Invasive Species Database maintained by the IUCN.
Polycarpa fibrosa is a species of tunicate in the family Styelidae. It is brown and globular and its outer surface is covered with a mat of fibrils. It normally lies buried in soft sediment on the seabed with only its two siphons protruding. It occurs in the Arctic Ocean and northern Atlantic Ocean. P. fibrosa was first identified and described by the American malacologist William Stimpson in 1852.
Cerianthus membranaceus, the cylinder anemone or coloured tube anemone, is a species of large, tube-dwelling anemone in the family Cerianthidae. It is native to the Mediterranean Sea and adjoining parts of the northeastern Atlantic Ocean.
Phoronis australis is a species of marine horseshoe worm in the phylum Phoronida. It is found in shallow warm-temperate and tropical waters in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and the Indo-Pacific region and was first detected in the Mediterranean Sea in the late twentieth century. These worms live in association with tube-dwelling anemones, particularly those in the genus Cerianthus.
Phoronis ovalis is a species of marine horseshoe worm in the phylum Phoronida. It is found in shallow waters in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean, the southeastern Atlantic Ocean, Argentina, and other scattered locations worldwide. These worms secrete a tube into which they can retreat, and burrow into the shells of molluscs.
Edwardsia neozelanica, commonly known as the burrowing anemone, is a small cryptic sea anemone from New Zealand. It burrows into soft mud or sand, and when covered with water extends its tentacles to feed on tiny particles of detritus.
Chorizopora brongniartii is a species of bryozoan in the family Chorizoporidae. It is an encrusting bryozoan, the colonies forming spreading patches. It has a widespread distribution in tropical and temperate seas.