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Cnidarians have huge numbers of cnidocytes on their tentacles. In medusoid form , the body floats on water so that the tentacles hang down in a ring around the mouth. In polyp form, such as sea anemone and coral, the body is below with the tentacles pointed upwards.
Pacific sea nettles, Chrysaora fuscescens. Cnidaria (/ n ɪ ˈ d ɛər i ə, n aɪ-/ nih-DAIR-ee-ə, NY-) [4] is a phylum under kingdom Animalia containing over 11,000 species [5] of aquatic invertebrates found both in fresh water and marine environments (predominantly the latter), including jellyfish, hydroids, sea anemones, corals and some of the smallest marine parasites.
Siphonophorae (from Greek siphōn 'tube' + pherein 'to bear' [2]) is an order within Hydrozoa, which is a class of marine organisms within the phylum Cnidaria.According to the World Register of Marine Species, the order contains 175 species described thus far.
Drawing of the statocyst system Statocysts (ss) and statolith (sl) inside the head of sea snail Gigantopelta chessoia. The statocyst is a balance sensory receptor present in some aquatic invertebrates, including bivalves, [1] cnidarians, [2] ctenophorans, [3] echinoderms, [4] cephalopods, [5] [6] crustaceans, [7] and gastropods, [8] A similar structure is also found in Xenoturbella. [9]
Like other cnidarians they possess cnidocysts, which were referred to as "polar capsules" before the discovery that myxozoans are cnidarians. These cnidocysts fire tubules as in other cnidarians; some inject substances into the host. However, the tubules lack hooks or barbs, and in some species are more elastic than in other cnidarians.
It is thought to be one of the earliest predators, catching small prey with its nematocysts as modern cnidarians do. [101] Some palaeontologists have suggested that animals appeared much earlier than the Cambrian explosion, possibly as early as 1 billion years ago. [102]
Cnidarians, like this starlet sea anemone, are the simplest animals to organise cells into tissue. Yet they have the same genes that form the vertebrate (including human) head. Cnidarians (from Greek for nettle) are distinguished by the presence of stinging cells, specialized cells that they
Hence ctenophores and cnidarians have traditionally been labelled diploblastic. [18] [20] Both ctenophores and cnidarians have a type of muscle that, in more complex animals, arises from the middle cell layer, [21] and as a result some recent text books classify ctenophores as triploblastic, [22] while others still regard them as diploblastic. [18]