cnidarian

Size range and diversity of structure

Cnidarians are radially symmetrical (i.e., similar parts are arranged symmetrically around a central axis). They lack cephalization (concentration of sensory organs in a head), their bodies have two cell layers rather than the three of so-called higher animals, and the saclike coelenteron has one opening (the mouth). They are the most primitive of animals whose cells are organized into distinct tissues, but they lack organs. Cnidarians have two body forms—polyp and medusa—which often occur within the life cycle of a single cnidarian.

The body of a medusa, commonly called a jellyfish, usually has the shape of a bell or an umbrella, with tentacles hanging downward at the margin. The tubelike manubrium hangs from the centre of the bell, connecting the mouth at the lower end of the manubrium to the coelenteron within the bell. Most medusae are slow-swimming, planktonic animals. In contrast, the mouth and surrounding tentacles of polyps face upward, and the cylindrical body is generally attached by its opposite end to a firm substratum. The mouth is at the end of a manubrium in many hydrozoan polyps. Anthozoan polyps have an internal pharynx, or stomodaeum, connecting the mouth to the coelenteron.

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Most species of cubozoans, hydrozoans, and scyphozoans pass through the medusoid and polypoid body forms, with medusae giving rise sexually to larvae that metamorphose into polyps, while polyps produce medusae asexually. Thus, the polyp is essentially a juvenile form, while the medusa is the adult form. In contrast, anthozoans are polypoid cnidarians and do not have a medusa stage. Commonly polyps, and in some species medusae too, can produce more of their own kind asexually.

One body form may be more conspicuous than the other. For example, scyphozoans are commonly known as true jellyfishes, for the medusa form is larger and better known than the polyp form. In hydrozoans, the polyp phase is more conspicuous than the medusa phase in groups such as hydroids and hydrocorals. Hydromedusae are smaller and more delicate than scyphomedusae or cubomedusae; they may be completely absent from the life cycle of some hydrozoan species. Some other species produce medusae, but the medusae never separate themselves from the polyps. Cubozoans have medusae commonly known as box jellyfish, from their shape. Some of these are responsible for human fatalities, mostly in tropical Australia and Southeast Asia, and include the so-called sea wasps. The polyp is tiny and inconspicuous.

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Many cnidarian polyps are individually no more than a millimetre or so across. Polyps of most hydroids, hydrocorals, and soft and hard corals, however, proliferate asexually into colonies, which can attain much greater size and longevity than their component polyps. Certain tropical sea anemones (class Anthozoa) may be a metre in diameter, and some temperate ones are nearly that tall. Anthozoans are long-lived, both individually and as colonies; some sea anemones are centuries old. All medusae and sea anemones occur only as solitary individuals. Scyphomedusae can weigh more than a ton, whereas hydromedusae are, at most, a few centimetres across. Tentacles of medusae, however, may be numerous and extensible, which allows the animals to influence a considerably greater range than their body size might suggest. Large populations of hydroids can build up on docks, boats, and rocks. Similarly, some medusae attain remarkable densities—up to thousands per litre of water—but only for relatively brief periods.

Distribution and abundance

Many of the world’s benthic (bottom-dwelling) ecosystems are dominated by anthozoans. Although soft and hard corals coexist in virtually all tropical areas appropriate for either, coral reefs of the tropical Indo-Pacific are built mainly by members of the anthozoan order Scleractinia (hard corals); whereas on coral reefs of the Caribbean members of the anthozoan subclass Alcyonaria (soft corals) are much more prominent. Aside from being the most numerous and covering the greatest area of any animals on the reef, the corals structure their environment, even after death. Soft corals contribute greatly to reef construction by the cementing action of the skeletal debris (spicules), filling in spaces between hard coral skeletons.

Soft-bodied anthozoans are similarly dominant in other seas. Temperate rocky intertidal zones in many parts of the world are carpeted with sea anemones. They sequester the space that is therefore made unavailable to other organisms, thus having a profound impact on community structure. The curious hemispherical anemone Liponema is the most abundant benthic invertebrate in the Gulf of Alaska, in terms of numbers and biomass. Parts of the Antarctic seabed are covered by anemones, and they occur near the deep-sea hot vents.