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Species
Turbellaria
IUCN
NCBI
EOL Text
In one genus (Kronborgia) females are longer and thinner than males; males more active; dwarf males may occur in one species.
License | http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Fairbairn, 2013 |
Source | http://datadryad.org/resource/doi:10.5061/dryad.n48cm |
Turbellaria is prey of:
Polychaeta
Pentaneurini
Procladius
Protanypus
Based on studies in:
South Africa (Desert or dune)
Finland (Lake or pond, Pelagic)
This list may not be complete but is based on published studies.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Cynthia Sims Parr, Joel Sachs, SPIRE |
Source | http://spire.umbc.edu/fwc/ |
Turbellaria preys on:
detritus
bottom organic matter
Cyclocypris
Darwinula
Candona
Cypridopsis
Attheyella
Paracamptus
Paracyclops
Psammoryctes
Lumbriculidae
Naididae
Tobrilus
Ironus
Peloscolex
Limnodrilus
Pallasea
Alona
Eurycercus
Alonella
Asellus
Cloeon
Caenis
Ephemera
Based on studies in:
South Africa (Desert or dune)
Finland (Lake or pond, Pelagic)
This list may not be complete but is based on published studies.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Cynthia Sims Parr, Joel Sachs, SPIRE |
Source | http://spire.umbc.edu/fwc/ |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
Specimen Records:1490
Specimens with Sequences:926
Specimens with Barcodes:627
Species:219
Species With Barcodes:175
Public Records:847
Public Species:170
Public BINs:156
The Acoelomorpha are a disputed phylum of marine, soft-bodied animals with planula-like features. Most species are free-living, some live on the surface of other organisms (ectocommensals) (Mwinyi et al. 2010). Traditionally, they were considered to belong to the phylum Platyhelminthes. In 2004 molecular studies demonstrated that they are a separate phylum (Baguñà & Riutort 2004), although their position in the tree of life is contentious; most researchers believe them to be basal among the Bilateria, slightly more derived than the cnidaria. Recent (2011) results suggest that they (along with Xenoturbella) may lie near the base of the deuterostomes (Maxmen 2011, Philippe at al. 2011). However, some consider the evidence for a position within deuterostomes weak and favor the placement of Xenoturbella + Acoelomorpha more basally among Metazoa (Edgecombe 2011).
Earlier (2007) work dismissed the phylum as paraphyletic, with Acoela and Nemertodermatida as separate clades (Wallberg et al. 2007).
An ongoing (Feb. 2011) collaborative research project has "the researchers ... confident that they can reach an agreement about where acoels fit in evolutionary history" (Maxmen 2011). Acoels are almost entirely marine, living between grains of sediment, swimming as plankton, or crawling on algae. Acoels have a statocyst, which presumably helps them orient to gravity. Their soft bodies make them difficult to classify (Petrov et al. 2006).
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Text modified from Wikipedia |
Source | http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acoelomorpha&oldid=521313347 |
The Acoela are very small flattened worms, usually under 2 millimetres (0.079 in) in length (Symsagittifera roscoffensis about 15 mm), that do not have a gut. Digestion is accomplished by means of a syncytium that forms a vacuole around ingested food. There are no epithelial cells lining the digestive vacuole, although there is sometimes a short pharynx leading from the mouth to the vacuole. All other bilateral animals (apart from tapeworms) have a gut lined with epithelial cells. As a result, the acoels appear to be solid-bodied (a-coel, or no body cavity).
Acoelomorphs resemble flatworms in many respects, but have a simpler anatomy, even beyond the absence of a gut. Like flatworms, they have no circulatory or respiratory systems, but they also lack an excretory system. They lack body cavities (acoelomate structure), a hindgut or an anus. Like flatworms they posses neoblasts and biflagellate sperm. They have no true brain or ganglia, simply a network of nerves beneath the ciliated epidermis, although the nerves are slightly more concentrated towards the forward end of the animal. The sensory organs include a statocyst and, in some cases, very primitive pigment-spot ocelli capable of detecting light.
They are simultaneous hermaphrodites, but have no gonads and no ducts associated with the female reproductive system. Instead, gametes are produced from the mesenchymal cells that fill the body between the epidermis and the digestive vacuole.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Text modified from Wikipedia |
Source | http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acoelomorpha&oldid=521313347 |
Ehlers U 1992 (citation)- "fine stuctural organizations of the epidermis, of epidermal receptors, of epidermal
glands, of the subepidermal channel-like glandular system and of the digestive system of" Paratomella
rubra. Phylogenetic system of the Acoelomorpha is presented.
Hooge MD 2001 (citation)- "Evolution of body-wall musculature in the Platyhelminthes (Acoelomorpha,
Catenulida, Rhabditophora)."