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
Dynabee

... a short rip string or by a snap of the thumb, a person holding it in her hand can accelerate the gyroscope to incredibly high revs by following a circular wrist motion ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 35.2 ms