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Cnidaria - Anthozoa

   

Anthozoans are polyp-like Cnidarians which are only found in marine habitats. They include the well known sea anemones, soft corals and hard corals (anemone-like groups with skeletons) and animals without skeletons (such as tube anemones), as well as the less well known sea pens, sea fans, blue coral and black coral.

There are over 6,000 species of Anthozoans which are found from the intertidal zone to the depths of the trenches (to 6,000 m).

Unlike other cnidarians, anthozoans do not have a medusa stage in their development, they live exclusively as polyps throughout their life cycles. Instead, they release sperm and eggs that form a planula, which attaches to some substrate on which the cnidarian grows. Some anthozoans can also reproduce asexually through budding.

An anthozoan individual has a saclike, cylindrical body divided by ray-like partitions known as septa and a ring of tentacles surrounding the mouth. The septa can easily be seen in corals. Anemones and certain species of coral are solitary living animals, however most corals form colonies of genetically identical polyps; these polyps closely resemble anemonies in structure although they are much smaller.

While anthozoans have nematocysts and many feed on large prey or particulate food, many anthozoans gain their energy from symbiotic algae growing n their tissues. Reef-building corals survive extremely well in tropical waters as most have symbiotic dinoflagellate algae living inside their tissues. Coral polyps also use their tentacles and nematocysts to feed, but Symbiodinium algae may actually produce most of a coral's food. For this reason, reef-building corals are always found in shallow-waters with plenty of light available.


Diversity in Anthozoa


`White Frilly Detailed Sea Anemone

   
Soft corals Staghorn plate coral Swimming anemone
Image © Ria Tan
Flickr
     
Obese Sea pen
Image © Richard Ling
Flickr
Blue coral (Heliopora coerulea)
Image © Ria Tan
Flickr
Sea fan
Image © Michael Sarver
Flickr
     
Black coral
Image © Nicole Van Abel
Flickr

Soft coral
Image GBRMPA
Brain Coral
Image © Jeffrey Scott
Flickr

   

Brain Coral Feeding (2.43)
This is a real time video of a brain coral getting ready to feed. Brain
corals are large polyps stony (LPS) corals and keep their feeding
tentacles closed during the day. At sunset or when fed, they turn
themselves "inside out" and display their tentacles
.

Swimming Anemone (1.23)
Surprising ability to swim from an animal that is usually fixed to its spot.
The sea anemone swims away when threatened. Filmed during a scuba
dive in Barkley Sound , Vancouver Island Canada

References

http://tolweb.org/Anthozoa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthozoa
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/cnidaria/anthozoa.html
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Anthozoa.html

Next: Sea pens  ...   

 

Introduction
Anthozoa
     Sea pens
     Corals
     Sea anemones
Cubozoa
Scyphozoa
Hydrozoa
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