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 Cnidarians (Phylum Cnidaria)
• Basic characteristics:
– Mostly marine, about 10,000 species known
– Named after their cnidocytes (stinging cells)
cnidocytes

which they use to capture food and protect

from predators
Predators

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Basic characteristics:

• Radial symmetry: many planes can be

Radialsymmetry

drawn through the central axis that will

divide the animal into equivalent halves
3 types of symmetry

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Basic characteristics:
– Two body forms:
•Medusa
Medusa – free-swimming form that is transported
by water currents, mouth with surrounding
tentacles positioned downwards
•Payp
Polyp – attached form with mouth and tentacles
positioned upwards
– Two tissue layers
• Epidermis covers body surface
• Gastrodermis lines internal body
cavity; specialized for digestion
• mesoglea
Mesoglea is in between and is
the jelly-like substance

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Medusa and Polyp

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 Cnidarians (Phylum Cnidaria)
– Nematocysts
Nemtocysts (stinging cells) within specialized
cells (cnidocytes) on tentacles.
tentacles Used for
protection and feeding
• Dangerous species
–Portuguese man-of-war (painful stings)
–box jellyfish (can kill within 3-20 minutes

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Nematocysts
v

https://youtu.be/Pu_ijC8HFRU

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 Nutrition and Digestion
– Digestive system is incomplete (sac-like with mouth
only) One way in and out, so waste and gametes
leave via mouth.
• Many hydrozoans and anthozoans are suspension
suspension
feeders
• Jellyfish and box jellyfish are carnivorous
carnivorous, eat fish and
larger invertebrates
• Sea anemones generally feed on
sea anemones
invertebrates, some large species
feed on fish, shallow water species
have symbiotic algae

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 Cnidarians (Phylum Cnidaria)

• Reproduction:
Sexual (different patterns)
– In some cnidarians: medusa
medusa is the sexual stage,
releasing eggs and sperm.
– Fertilized egg results in a zygote, which develops into
Planula .
a swimming larva, the planula
– The planula settles on the bottom to form a colony
of polyps.
– New medusae are formed by mature colony.

Asexual
– Polyps reproduce by budding.
budding

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Cnidarian Reproduction

Ephryae

(bkgd)Comstock Images/PictureQuest, (r)©Bill Ober

 Types of Cnidarians
Hydrozoans
Hydrozoans (Class Hydrozoa)
– Most consist of colony of polyps, with small
reproductive medusa.
– Siphonophores
siphonophores – hydrozoans that form drifting
colonies of polyps
– Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia) – siphonophore
carried by a gas-filled float; some of the polyps
with long tentacles armed with stinging
nematocysts

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Colonial Hydrozoans

(bkgd)Comstock Images/PictureQuest, (c)©Bill Ober

April 6, 2020 the Schmidt Ocean Institute announced the discovery of a
giant Apolemia siphonophore in submarine canyons near Ningaloo
Coast, measuring 15 m (49 ft) diameter with a ring approximately

.
47 m (154 ft) long, possibly the largest siphonophore ever recorded

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2
020-04/soi-nsd040920.php
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 Types of Cnidarians
• Scyphozoans
Scyphozoans (Class Scyphozoa) -
large jellyfishes (sea jellies)
– Large medusae with minute sessile polyps, they
move up and down by rhythmic muscular
contractions of the bell, but are carried by
water currents.
water currents

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Scyphozoans

(bkgd)Comstock Images/PictureQuest, (c)©Charlie Arneson

 Types of Cnidarians
Box Jellies (Class Cubozoa):
Box Jenies
- Small medusae with tentacles armed with very
powerful nematocysts that may cause death in humans
(read “The Case of the Killer Cnidarians”).

https://youtu.be/Lb9aJfcdYI8

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 Types of Cnidarians
Anthozoans
Anthozoans (Class Anthozoa): Corals, sea
anemones, gorgonians (sea fans)
–Single or colonial polyps without a medusa
–Corals secrete calcium carbonate skeleton and some
calcium carbonate
build complex coral reefs
–Most corals have symbiotic zooxanthellae, symbiotic
dinoflagellates.

Sea fan Sea anemone Brain coral

 Anthozoan

Sea anemone
sea anemone
with buds
with buds

Sea
sea fan
fan
(bkgd)Comstock Images/PictureQuest, (c)©Charlie Arneson
 Ecological Relationships of
Cnidarians
Symbiotic relationships
–Portuguese man-of-war and
man-of-war
clownfish hermit crab fish

–reef-forming corals and Zooxanthellae

zooxanthellae
–sea anemones...
and clownfish hermit crab anemone crab

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 Comb Jellies
(Phylum Ctenophora)
• Basic characteristics:
– 88 rows
rows of ciliary combs that beat continuously
– Radial symmetry
– No nematocysts
nematocysts
– Long sticky tentacles used to capture prey
– About 100 species, all marine,
mostly planktonic
planktonic

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• Weak swimmers - move only up and down
Digestion and Nutrition
- Carnivores.
Carnivores Feed on zooplankton, larval fish
and fish eggs
Reproduction
- Almost all species are hermaphroditic
hermaphroditic

- External fertilization

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 Kayak with comb jellies

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=171
7635635764705

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 Ecological Relationships

• Control the size of zooplankton

Zooplankton
• Regulate fish populations
• Channel nutrients
nutrients to larger plankton
feeders

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