Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms that inhabit the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather than on taxonomy.
Pyura is a large genus of sessile ascidians that live in coastal waters at depths of up to 80 m (260 feet). Like all ascidians, Pyura are filter feeders. A few species, including Pyura chilensis are commercially fished.
Epimeriidae is a family of relatively large amphipods found in cold oceans around the world.
Intertidal ecology is the study of intertidal ecosystems, where organisms live between the low and high tide lines. At low tide, the intertidal is exposed whereas at high tide, the intertidal is underwater. Intertidal ecologists therefore study the interactions between intertidal organisms and their environment, as well as between different species of intertidal organisms within a particular intertidal community. The most important environmental and species interactions may vary based on the type of intertidal community being studied, the broadest of classifications being based on substrates—rocky shore and soft bottom communities.
Marine ecosystems are the largest of Earth's aquatic ecosystems and exist in waters that have a high salt content. These systems contrast with freshwater ecosystems, which have a lower salt content. Marine waters cover more than 70% of the surface of the Earth and account for more than 97% of Earth's water supply and 90% of habitable space on Earth. Seawater has an average salinity of 35 parts per thousand of water. Actual salinity varies among different marine ecosystems. Marine ecosystems can be divided into many zones depending upon water depth and shoreline features. The oceanic zone is the vast open part of the ocean where animals such as whales, sharks, and tuna live. The benthic zone consists of substrates below water where many invertebrates live. The intertidal zone is the area between high and low tides. Other near-shore (neritic) zones can include mudflats, seagrass meadows, mangroves, rocky intertidal systems, salt marshes, coral reefs, lagoons. In the deep water, hydrothermal vents may occur where chemosynthetic sulfur bacteria form the base of the food web.
Eunicidae is a family of marine polychaetes. The family comprises marine annelids distributed in diverse benthic habitats across Oceania, Europe, South America, North America, Asia and Africa. The Eunicid anatomy typically consists of a pair of appendages near the mouth (mandibles) and complex sets of muscular structures on the head (maxillae) in an eversible pharynx. One of the most conspicuous of the eunicids is the giant, dark-purple, iridescent "Bobbit worm", a bristle worm found at low tide under boulders on southern Australian shores. Its robust, muscular body can be as long as 2 m. Eunicidae jaws are known from as far back as Ordovician sediments. Cultural tradition surrounds Palola worm reproductive cycles in the South Pacific Islands. Eunicidae are economically valuable as bait in both recreational and commercial fishing. Commercial bait-farming of Eunicidae can have adverse ecological impacts. Bait-farming can deplete worm and associated fauna population numbers, damage local intertidal environments and introduce alien species to local aquatic ecosystems.
Hexacorallia is a class of Anthozoa comprising approximately 4,300 species of aquatic organisms formed of polyps, generally with 6-fold symmetry. It includes all of the stony corals, most of which are colonial and reef-forming, as well as all sea anemones, and zoanthids, arranged within five extant orders. The hexacorallia are distinguished from another class of Anthozoa, Octocorallia, in having six or fewer axes of symmetry in their body structure; the tentacles are simple and unbranched and normally number more than eight. These organisms are formed of individual soft polyps which in some species live in colonies and can secrete a calcite skeleton. As with all Cnidarians, these organisms have a complex life cycle including a motile planktonic phase and a later characteristic sessile phase. Hexacorallia also include the significant extinct order of rugose corals.
In Australia, a cunjevoi may mean:
Pyura stolonifera, commonly known in South Africa as "red bait", is a sessile ascidian, or sea squirt, that lives in coastal waters attached to rocks or artificial structures. Sea squirts are named for their habit of squirting a stream of water from their exhalant siphons when touched at low tide.
Clavelina picta, common name the painted tunicate, is a species of tunicate, in the genus Clavelina. These animals, like all ascidians, are sessile filter feeders.
Styela montereyensis, also called the stalked tunicate, Monterey stalked tunicate, and the long-stalked sea squirt is a solitary ascidian tunicate. It has a cylindrical, yellow to dark reddish-brown body and a thin trunk that anchors it to rocks. It is found in subtidal areas of the western coast of North America from Vancouver Island to Baja California.
Pyura chilensis, called piure in Spanish and piür or piwü in Mapudungun, is a tunicate of the family Pyuridae. It was described in 1782 by Juan Ignacio Molina.
Pyura pachydermatina is a sea tulip, a solitary species of tunicate in the suborder Stolidobranchia. It is native to shallow waters around New Zealand.
Pyura dalbyi, the yellow cunjevoi, is a species of tunicate
Pyura doppelgangera, the doppelganger cunjevoi, is a tunicate that lives in coastal waters of Australasia attached to rocks or artificial structures.
Pyura herdmani, one of two southern African species of "red bait", is a sessile ascidian, or sea squirt, that lives in coastal waters attached to rocks or artificial structures. Sea squirts are named for their habit of squirting a stream of water from their exhalant siphons when touched at low tide.
Plaxiphora albida, the white Plaxiphora chiton, is a species of chiton in the family Mopaliidae.
Boltenia villosa is a species of tunicate, a marine invertebrate of the family Pyuridae. Common names include spiny-headed tunicate, hairy sea squirt, stalked hairy sea squirt and bristly tunicate. This species was first described in 1864 by the American marine biologist William Stimpson who gave it the name Cynthia villosa. It was later transferred to the genus Boltenia. The type locality is Puget Sound, Washington state, United States.
Coscinasterias muricata is a species of starfish in the family Asteriidae. It is a large 11-armed starfish and occurs in shallow waters in the temperate western Indo-Pacific region.
Pyura haustor is a species of sessile ascidian, or sea squirt, that lives in coastal waters in the north-eastern Pacific Ocean, attached to rocks or artificial structures. Common names for this species include the wrinkled seapump, the wrinkled sea squirt and the warty tunicate.
