Sea Squirt

A Sea Squirt is a Tunicate organism with a sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders.

• AKA: Ascidiacea.
  • …
• Counter-Example(s):
  • Thaliacea.
  • …
• See: Halocynthia, Animal, Chordata, Tunicate, Aplousobranchia, Phlebobranchia, Pleurogona, Stolidobranchia.

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References

2022

• (Wikipedia, 2022) ⇒ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascidiacea Retrieved:2022-2-14.
  • Ascidiacea, commonly known as the ascidians, tunicates (in part), and sea squirts (in part), is a polyphyletic class in the subphylum Tunicata of sac-like marine invertebrate filter feeders. Ascidians are characterized by a tough outer "tunic" made of a polysaccharide.

    Ascidians are found all over the world, usually in shallow water with salinities over 2.5%. While members of the Thaliacea and Larvacea (Appendicularia) swim freely like plankton, sea squirts are sessile animals after their larval phase: they then remain firmly attached to their substratum, such as rocks and shells. There are 2,300 species of ascidians and three main types: solitary ascidians, social ascidians that form clumped communities by attaching at their bases, and compound ascidians that consist of many small individuals (each individual is called a zooid) forming colonies up to several meters in diameter. Sea squirts feed by taking in water through a tube, the oral siphon. The water enters the mouth and pharynx, flows through mucus-covered gill slits (also called pharyngeal stigmata) into a water chamber called the atrium, then exits through the atrial siphon.

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