Beautiful Cnidarians!!!
The basic body shape of a cnidarian consists of a sac containing a gastrovascular cavity with a single opening that functions as both mouth and anus.
There are four main classes of Cnidaria:
* Class Anthozoa (anemones, corals, etc.)
* Class Scyphozoa (jellyfish)
* Class Cubozoa (box jellies)
* Class Hydrozoa (Obelia)
Anthozoa is a class within the phylum Cnidaria that contains the sea anemones and corals. Unlike other cnidarians, anthozoans do not have a medusa stage in their development. 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.
All cnidarian species can feed by catching prey with nematocysts, sea anemones capable of catching fish and corals catching plankton. Some of the species also harbour a type of algae, dinoflagellates called zooxanthellae, in a symbiotic relationship; the reef building corals known as hermatypic corals rely on this symbiotic relationship particularly. The zooxanthellae benefit by using nitrogenous waste and carbon dioxide produced by the host, and the cnidarian gains photosynthetic capability and increased calcium carbonate production in hermatypic corals.
Source : Wikipedia
Some awesome pictures of Sea anemones from Phyla Cnidaria taken from Flickr are displayed. These are really beautiful creatures ,truly a sight to behold.Thanks to all the people for uploading these wonderful pictures.
Related Posts:
If you liked what you just read, you may want to subscribe to my
RSS FEED
Thanks for visiting!
Leave your response!