MBE 230-Chapter 12: Protostomes

Rotifers:

- They can be planktonic or benthic, they often attach to other animals

- They have a head of cilia used for swimming and feeding

- Simple eyespots

- Can reproduce asexually or sexually

- They have direct development

- They also undergo clonal budding for colonies

- There are 50 marine species

Bryozoa (Ectoprocts) (5,000 species):

- Mostly benthic animals on hard substrates

- Some are on sediments or on hosts

- They are colonial animals in a house with tentacles (they all join together to form colonies and each one puts its tentacles out and forms a type of "house" combined with the others)

- They have a house of chitin, some will add CaCO3

- Some connection and differentiation among individuals in colonies

- Their tentacles have cilia used for filter feeding

- They are flattened colonies in turbulent water

- Arborescent (resembling a tree in growth or appearance) colonies in calm water

- Asexual budding for colony development

- They are hermaphrodites and have planktonic larvae

- Cosmopolitan, but mostly in shallow tropics

Brachiopods (400 species):

- They are comprised of dorsal and ventral hinged shells made out of CaCO3

- Some are on a muscular stalk

- They attach to hard substrates or anchor themselves in the sediment

- They can be both benthic epifaunal (live attached to a surface) or infaunal (live within bottom sediments, ie., in the ground)

- They have ciliated tentacles for feeding

- They have separate sexes, external fertilization, and they have planktonic larvae.

- Cosmopolitan

Other Protostomes:

- Gastrotrichs

- Gnasthostumulids

- Tardigrade

- Loricifera