Encyclopedia > Ctenophore

  Article Content

Ctenophore

Ctenophores (Ctenophora) is a phylum of animals that are commonly called "comb jellies", "sea gooseberries", "sea walnuts", or "Venus's girdles" and are voracious marine predators. The word is pronounced ten-oh-for and comes from the Greek for "comb-bearers".

Ctenophores are vaguely similar in appearance to jellyfish, have eight "comb rows" of fused cilia that are arranged laterally along the sides of the animal and used primarily for locomotion. Many ctenophores have two long tentacles[?], but some lack tentacles completely. There are about 100 modern species of these marine animals. Due to their soft and fragile bodies, the fossil record for comb jellies is poor. A possible Ctenophore is known from the Middle Cambrian.

External link
Introduction to Ctenophora (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/cnidaria/ctenophora)



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Great River, New York

... in the town is $78,399, and the median income for a family is $89,566. Males have a median income of $60,179 versus $58,125 for females. The per capita income for the town ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 95.4 ms