Tube-dwelling anemone

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Tube-dwelling anemones
Cerianthidae sp.jpg
Cerianthus sp.
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Subphylum: Anthozoa
Class: Hexacorallia
Order: Ceriantharia
Families

See text.

Tube-dwelling anemones, tube anemones or ceriantharians. scientific name: Ceriantharia, are an order of hexacorals.

Contents

Characteristics

They look very similar to the sea anemones (Actiniaria), but are not directly related to them. They are solitary, living buried in soft sediments. They live inside and can withdraw into tubes, which are composed of a fibrous material made from secreted mucus and threads of nematocyst-like organelles known as ptychocysts. Within the tubes of the tube anemones, more than one polyp is present, which is an exceptional trait because species that create tube systems usually contain only one polyp per tube. [1]

Tube anemones have a crown of tentacles that are composed of two whorls of distinctly different-sized tentacles. The outer whorl consists of large tentacles that extend outwards. These tentacles taper to points and are mostly used in food capture and defense. The smaller inner tentacles are held more erect than the larger lateral tentacles and are used for food manipulation and ingestion. [2] The tentacles of tube anemones are also venomous, similar to Cnidarians, which allows them to protect themselves from predators. The recent exploration of tube anemones and their venomous tentacles permits the exploration of the lineage of venom genes in Anthozoas. [3]

A few species such as Anactinia pelagica are pelagic and are not attached to the bottom; instead, they have a gas chamber within the pedal disc, allowing them to float upside down near the surface of the water. [4] [5]

Fossil record

So far, the only fossil record for the group is from Eocene and Oligocene deep-water rocks in Washington State, USA. [6]

Taxonomy

The tube anemones (Ceriantharia) were formerly classified in the taxon (subclass) Ceriantipatharia along with the black corals (Antipatharia) [7] , but they are now considered to be basal hexacorals (or, equivalently, a sister taxon to the hexacorals) and unrelated to the black corals.

The current system is shown below:

order Ceriantharia:

Suborder Spirularia
Suborder Penicillaria [10]

A 2020 integrative study incorporating molecular phylogenetic reconstructions and morphological assessment across the three families recovered Arachnactidae as a well-supported clade, but did not recover Cerianthidae and Botrucnidiferidae as monophyletic, drawing into question the validity of the Spirularia suborder [11]

References

  1. ↑ Ceriello, Hellen; Costa, Gabriel G.; Bakken, Torkild; Stampar, Sérgio N. (October 2020). "Corals as substrate for tube-dwelling anemones" . Marine Biodiversity. 50 (5): 89. Bibcode:2020MarBd..50...89C. doi:10.1007/s12526-020-01116-1. hdl: 11449/206545 . ISSN   1867-1616. S2CID   221885210.
  2. ↑ Brusca, R.C. & Brusca, G.J. 2002. Invertebrates Second Edition Sinauer Associates. ISBN   0-87893-097-3
  3. ↑ Stampar, S. N.; Broe, M. B., Macrander, J.; Reitzel, A. M.; Brugler, M. R.; Daly, M. (2019). "Linear Mitochondrial Genome in Anthozoa (Cnidaria): A Case Study in Ceriantharia". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 6094–6094. Bibcode:2019NatSR...9.6094S. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-42621-z. PMC   6465557 . PMID   30988357.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ↑ Barnes, Robert D. (1982). Invertebrate Zoology. Philadelphia, PA: Holt-Saunders International. pp. 150–157. ISBN   0-03-056747-5.
  5. ↑ Annandale, N. (1909). "A pelagic sea-anemone without tentacles". Records of the Indian Museum. 3 (10): 157–162.
  6. ↑ Kiel, S.; Goedert, J.L. (2025). "Eocene and Oligocene ceriantharian tubes". Journal of Paleontology, First View: 1–5. doi: 10.1017/jpa.2025.10108 .
  7. ↑ Appeltans, Ward (2010). "Ceriantipatharia". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species . Retrieved 2017-12-21.
  8. ↑ WoRMS. "Botrucnidiferidae Carlgren, 1912". World Register of Marine Species . Retrieved 2016-02-10.
  9. ↑ WoRMS. "Cerianthidae". World Register of Marine Species . Retrieved 2016-02-10.
  10. ↑ Tina Molodtsova (2011). "Penicilaria". WoRMS. World Register of Marine Species . Retrieved January 20, 2012.
  11. ↑ Forero Mejia, Anny C.; Molodtsova, Tina; Östman, Carina; Bavestrello, Giorgio; Rouse, Greg W. (2020). "Molecular phylogeny of Ceriantharia (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) reveals non-monophyly of traditionally accepted families". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 190 (2): 397–416. doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz158 .

Hickman; et al. (2008), Integrated Principles of Zoology (14th ed.), New York: McGraw-Hill, ISBN   978-0-07-297004-3

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