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SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM ENTOPROCTA

SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM ENTOPROCTA (NITSCHE 1870)

EUKARYA> UNIKONTA> OPISTHOKONTA> ANIMALIA> BILATERIA> PROTOSTOMATA> SPIRALIA> TROCHOZOA> POLYZOA> ENTOPROCTA
ENTOPROCTA LINKS

Introduction

Hierarchical Classification

The following information came from Margulis and Schwartz (1998), Buchsbaum (1938), Barnes (1980), Barnes (1984), Brusca and Brusca (2003), Hickman (1973), Nicholas (2001b), Nielsen (2001), Storer and Usinger (1965), and Tudge (2000).

I. SYNONYMS: bryozoans, entoprocts, kamptozoans, goblet worms.

II. NUMBER: >150 species known.

III. PHYLUM CHARACTERISTICS:

  • A. Structure
    • Symmetry: Bilateral
    • Body Cavity: Pseudocoelom (some claim that it is a true coelom) often occluded by mesenchyme.
    • Body Covering: Outer cuticle (text with tooltip) Cuticle is an acellular covering that is secreted by the epithelium. .
    • Support: Hydrostatic skeleton and cuticle.
    • Digestive System: Food tube U-shaped. Anus discharges in center of tentacular ring.
    • Circulatory System: Absent.
    • Locomotion: Animals sessile (text with tooltip) Sessile is sedentary or attached to a substrate. ; tentacles covered with cilia to move water.
    • Excretory System: Absent.
    • Nervous System: Anterior ganglion (text with tooltip) A ganglion (ganglia, pl.) is a cluster of nerve cells. A brain is an enlarged ganglion. from which nerves emanate.
    • Endocrine System: None.
  • B. Reproduction:
    • Reproductive System: Most are hermaphroditic (text with tooltip) An animal that bears both male and female gonads. , internal fertilization (but no copulation). Budding is common.
    • Development: Zygote develops by determinate (text with tooltip) Determinant cleavage occurs when cell fate in animals is determined early in the divisions of the zygote to produce a blastula. , spiral cleavage (text with tooltip) Spiral cleavage is typical of the Protostomata and is characterized by the division planes of early cytokinesis products of the zygote being oblique to the plane of the polar axis. This produces unequal cells in the developing blastula. Usually spiral cleavage is determinant. into a trochophore-like larva (text with tooltip) The trochophore larva is a distinctive larval form of an assortment of protostomes (e.g. annelids, mollusks, bryozoans). Commonly found in the marine plankton, the trochophore is top-shaped with a marginal ring of cilia pygidium and a ciliary tuft near the mouth. .
  • C. Ecology: Most are marine (one freshwater form) and sessile as adults. Larvae planktonic.
LITERATURE CITED

Barnes, R. D. 1980. Invertebrate Zoology. Saunders College/Holt, Rinehart and Wilson, Philadelphia.

Barnes. R. S. K. 1984a. Kingdom Animalia. IN: R. S. K. Barnes, ed. A Synoptic Classification of Living Organisms. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, MA. pp. 129-257.

Brusca, R. C. and G. J. Brusca. 2003. Invertebrates. Sinauer Associates, Inc. Sunderland, Mass.

Buchsbaum, R. 1938. Animals Without Backbones, An Introduction to the Invertebrates. The University of Chicago Press. Chicago.

Dunn, C.W., A. Hejnol, D.Q. Matus, K. Pang, W.E. Browne, S.A. Smith, E. Seaver, G.W. Rouse, M. Obst, G.D. Edgecombe, M.V. Sørensen, S.H.D. Haddock, A. Schmidt-Rhaesa, A. Okusu, R.M. Kristensen, W.C. Wheeler, M.Q. Martindale, and G. Giribet. 2008. Broad phylogenomic sampling improves resolution of the animal tree of life. Nature. 452: 745-749.

Hickman, C. P. 1973. Biology of the Invertebrates. The C. V. Mosby Company. Saint Louis.

Margulis, L. and K. Schwartz. 1998. Five kingdoms, an illustrated guide to the phyla of life on earth. 3rd Edition. W. H. Freeman and Company. New York.

Meglitsch, P. A. and F. R. Schramm. 1991. Invertebrate Zoology. Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford.

Nielsen, C. 2001. Animal Evolution: Interrelationships of the Living Phyla. 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press. Oxford.

Ruppert, E. E. and R. D. Barnes. 1994. Invertebrate Zoology. 6th edition. Saunders. Ft Worth, TX.

Ruppert, E. E., R. S. Fox, and R. D. Barnes. 2004. Invertebrate Zoology: A Functional Evolutionary Approach. Seventh Edition. Thomson, Brooks/Cole. New York. pp. 1-963.

Storer, T. I. and R. L. Usinger. 1965. General Zoology. 4th Edition. McGraw-Hill Book Company. New York.

Tudge, C. 2000. The Variety of Life, A Survey and a Celebration of all the Creatures That Have Ever Lived. Oxford University Press. New York.

Valentine, J. W. 2004. The Origin of Phyla. University of Chicago Press. Chicago. 614 pp.
By Jack R. Holt and Carlos A. Iudica. Last revised: 01/29/2012
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