Cnidaria is a phylum under kingdom Animalia containing over 11,000 species of aquatic invertebrates 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 few animals that can reproduce both sexually and asexually.
Hydrozoa is a taxonomic class of individually very small, predatory animals, some solitary and some colonial, most of which inhabit saline water. The colonies of the colonial species can be large, and in some cases the specialized individual animals cannot survive outside the colony. A few genera within this class live in freshwater habitats. Hydrozoans are related to jellyfish and corals and belong to the phylum Cnidaria.
Obelia is a genus of hydrozoans, a class of mainly marine and some freshwater animal species that have both polyp and medusa stages in their life cycle. Hydrozoa belongs to the phylum Cnidaria, which are aquatic organisms that are relatively simple in structure with a diameter around 1mm. There are currently 120 known species, with more to be discovered. These species are grouped into three broad categories: O. bidentata, O. dichotoma, and O. geniculata. O. longissima was later accepted as a legitimate species, but taxonomy regarding the entire genus is debated over.
Kimberella is an extinct genus of bilaterian known only from rocks of the Ediacaran period. The slug-like organism fed by scratching the microbial surface on which it dwelt in a manner similar to the gastropods, although its affinity with this group is contentious.
The chondrophores or porpitids are a small group of hydrozoans in the family Porpitidae. Though it derives from an outdated name for this lineage, some still find the term 'chondrophore' useful as a synonym to 'porpitid' in discussions of the two genera contained therein, Porpita and Velella.
Isopoda is an order of crustaceans. Members of this group are called isopods and include both aquatic species, and terrestrial species such as woodlice. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, and five pairs of branching appendages on the abdomen that are used in respiration. Females brood their young in a pouch under their thorax called the marsupium.
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research or NIWA, is a Crown Research Institute of New Zealand. Established in 1992, NIWA conducts research across a broad range of disciplines in the environmental sciences. It also maintains nationally and, in some cases, internationally important environmental monitoring networks, databases, and collections.
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.
Icadyptes is an extinct genus of giant penguins from the Late Eocene tropics of South America.
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.
Terminonaris is a genus of extinct pholidosaurid crocodyliforms that lived during the Late Cretaceous epoch. The name means: “enlarged snout or nose” at the front of the skull. Terminonaris is an early crocodile, within a subgroup called Mesoeucrocodylia. Its remains have only been found in North America and Europe. Originally known under the generic name Teleorhinus, it was once believed to be a teleosaurid. Both prehistoric crocodiles such as Terminonaris, as well as modern crocodiles, belong to the same group called crocodyliformes, although modern crocodiles have specific features that indicate they are distant relatives of this species and members of the subgroup Eusuchia.
Leptothecata, or thecate hydroids, are an order of hydrozoans in the phylum Cnidaria. Their closest living relatives are the athecate hydroids, which are similar enough to have always been considered closely related, and the very apomorphic Siphonophorae, which were placed outside the "Hydroida". Given that there are no firm rules for synonymy for high-ranked taxa, alternative names like Leptomedusa, Thecaphora or Thecata, with or without the ending emended to "-ae", are also often used for Leptothecata.
The Avalon explosion, named from the Precambrian faunal trace fossils discovered on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, eastern Canada, is a proposed evolutionary radiation of prehistoric animals about 575 million years ago in the Ediacaran period, with the Avalon explosion being one of three eras grouped in this time period. This evolutionary event is believed to have occurred some 33 million years earlier than the Cambrian explosion, which had been long thought to be when complex life started on Earth.
Ficopomatus enigmaticus, commonly known as the Australian tubeworm, is a species of serpulid tubeworms. Their true native range is unknown, but they probably originated in the Southern Hemisphere, perhaps from the Indian Ocean and the coastal waters of Australia. Today they have a cosmopolitan distribution, having been introduced to shallow waters worldwide. The Australian tubeworm is an invasive species that dominates and alters habitats, reduces water quality, depletes resources, and causes biofouling.
Australornis is a genus of extinct seabird discovered in New Zealand. It lived in the Paleocene epoch, 60.5 to 61.6 million years ago (Ma). The type species name originates from australis, Latin for "southern", and ornis, the Greek word for "bird", and lovei commemorates Leigh Love, an amateur paleontologist who discovered it.
Solanderia ericopsis is a hydroid in the family Solanderiidae, the group commonly known as tree hydroids or sea fan hydroids. S. ericopsis forms very large, conspicuous colonies from 5 to 50 cm in height, which are often noted by divers. They are usually strictly fan-shaped but can sometimes be bushy.
Turritopsis rubra, commonly referred to as the Crimson Jelly, is a hydrozoan within the family Oceaniidae. The species is native to New Zealand and southern Australia, typically appearing near shorelines in the summer months. The species follows a distribution pattern across the southern Pacific Ocean and can frequently be found in shallow coastal waters.
The evolution of bacteria has progressed over billions of years since the Precambrian time with their first major divergence from the archaeal/eukaryotic lineage roughly 3.2-3.5 billion years ago. This was discovered through gene sequencing of bacterial nucleoids to reconstruct their phylogeny. Furthermore, evidence of permineralized microfossils of early prokaryotes was also discovered in the Australian Apex Chert rocks, dating back roughly 3.5 billion years ago during the time period known as the Precambrian time. This suggests that an organism in of the phylum Thermotogota was the most recent common ancestor of modern bacteria.
Ichnusa is a genus of discoidal cnidarians that existed during the Ediacaran, 635-541 Million Years ago (MYA) discovered on the island of Sardinia, Italy. The genus is monotypic, only containing the species Ichnusa cocozzi. Palaeontologists think that Ichnusa represented a cnidarian of unknown affinities, with I. cocozzi being put in the Scyphozoa.
Victoria Sadie Mills is a New Zealand marine biologist and an invertebrate collection manager at New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. Mills specialises in the taxonomy of Ophiuroidea and has written a book titled Extraordinary echinoderms : a guide to the echinoderms of New Zealand.
