Eastern Visayas State University

Tacloban City
GRADUATE SCHOOL

Topic: PHYLUM CNIDARIA

Presenter: MARIANO A. AURE, JR., LPT
Subject: Advanced Invertebrate Zoology
Professor: PROF. CARIDAD JOVER

PHYLUM CNIDARIA
 ancient phylum of mostly marine
organisms
 best known for its contribution to
geomorphological features
 fossil remains contribute to some
limestones
 significant components of the
plankton
 some of these species are justly
feared by humans for their stings
 Worldwide, there are about 10,000
described species, with perhaps
half as many again undescribed.
 All cnidarians have nettle cells
known as nematocysts (or cnidae –
from the Greek, knide, a nettle),
extraordinarily complex structures
that are effectively invaginated
coiled tubes within a cell.
 When triggered, the cnidae are
explosively evaginated, their barbed
tips penetrating cells of other
organisms and discharging toxins.
 Thousands of these are found in
the tentacles of anemones,
medusae, and hydroids, which are
all effectively carnivorous, whether
they capture large prey or suspension-feed on small particles.

MORPHOLOGY
 Cnidarians are diploblastic, having
two cellular layers separated by a
jelly-like mesogloea in which skeletal
elements can occur.
 The inner cellular layer (endoderm
or gastrodermis) lines the sac-like
digestive cavity that lacks a separate
anus.
 The outer cellular layer (ectoderm or
epidermis) contains nematocyst-
producing cells, cells of the nerve
net, and epithelio-muscular cells.
 The inner cellular layer (endoderm
or gastrodermis) lines the sac-like
digestive cavity that lacks a separate
anus.

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 When both phases are present, in a

kind of ‘alternation of generations’,
gonads develop in the medusa.
 The ability of the polyp phase to bud
asexually in many cnidarians allows
them to form large colonies.
 In some taxa the polyps are
differentiated into separate feeding,
defensive, reproductive, and other
forms – a phenomenon known as
polymorphism.
 Evolutionary studies suggest that the
Anthozoa is the most ‘primitive’
group and a sister to the rest of the
Cnidaria (Schuchert 1993; Bridge et
al. 1995). Hence, the medusa is
derived.

FIVE CLASSES
1. Anthozoa (e.g. corals, anemones)
have only the polyp phase
2. Many Scyphozoa (jellyfish) and
Hydrozoa (hydroids) have both
phases or one of them is lost.
3. In the Staurozoa (stalked jellyfish)
and Cubozoa (box jellies), the tiny
polyp is transformed into the
medusa.

CLASS ANTHOZOA
 Anthozoans comprise the largest group of Cnidaria, with about 6,000 living species
worldwide.
 All are marine and there is no medusa phase.
 The mouth opens into a stomach cavity that is partitioned by mesenteries that expand
the inner absorptive surface.
 Two subclasses: Octocorallia (Alcyonaria) and Hexacorallia (Zoantharia).

SUBCLASS OCTOCORALLIA
 This subclass used to be divided into
a number of orders, all but one
colonial, in which the polyps are
united by stoloniferous cords or
sheets of tissue (coenenchyme).
 The eight tentacles of the polyp are
distinctively pinnate.
 Skeletal elements are variably
developed
 May comprise sparse to abundant
calcareous (calcite) sclerites scattered
throughout the colonial mesogloea or,
in the case of many gorgonians, their
axes may be constructed of scleroprotein and extremely rigid.

SUBCLASS HEXACORALLIA
 Hexacorals may be solitary or colonial, soft or hard, the latter having rigid calcified
skeletons.

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 Soft hexacorals comprise the orders Ceriantharia (tube anemones), Actiniaria (sea
anemones), Corallimorpharia (coral-like anemones), and Zoanthidea (zoanthid
anemones).
 Hard hexacorals comprise the orders
Scleractinia (stony corals) and
Antipatharia (black corals).

ORDER CERIANTHARIA
 Tube anemones are solitary tube-
dwelling hexacorals living in muddy
bottoms.
 They are not a diverse group.

ORDER ACTINIARIA
 Sea anemones
 The fauna includes species with wide distributions.

ORDER ZOANTHIDEA
 They differ from “sea anemones” in
details of internal organs.
 Unlike most sea anemones ,
zoantheridians can form true colonies in
which all members are connected by
common tissue.

ORDER ANTIPATHARIA
Black corals are distinguished by their erect, often bushy, habit of growth and hard
proteinaceous skeleton that bears tiny polyps.
The skeleton may be naturally lustrous, or rendered so after polishing, and some overseas
species are harvested to make into jewellery.
“Little thorn corals”
ORDER CORALLIMORPHARIA
The species looks like a spreading colonial sea anemone.
Each tentacle is tipped with a characteristic knob (acrosphere) that is densely and minutely
studded with cnidae
Mushroom sea anemone
ORDER SCLERACTINIA
Stony corals are often regarded as characteristic, even diagnostic, of the tropics.
But it must be understood that not all stony corals contain in their tissues the symbiotic
dinoflagellates (kingdom Protozoa) known as zooxanthellae that are characteristic of reef corals.
ORDER SCLERACTINIA
All corals begin life attached to a substratum, but many subsequently become free by detaching
from the substratum or overgrowing it, some even adopting an interstitial habit.
Free-living species are commonest among the solitary deep-water fauna.
ORDER SCLERACTINIA
All corals possess an aragonitic calcium carbonate skeleton (a corallum).
CLASS SCYPHOZOA
The Scyphozoa is a small group of cnidarians comprising only about 250 living species.
Scyphozoans are entirely marine, with a reduced polyp phase and generally a large and
conspicuous medusa phase.
CLASS SCYPHOZOA
Unlike those of hydrozoans and anthozoans, scyphozoan polyps are more or less unattached to
one another and do not share nutrients with other colony members.

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Medusa formation is by a form of budding (strobilation), with the polyp typically remaining to
continue budding and even to strobilate again.
CLASS SCYPHOZOA
There are three orders – Coronatae, easily distinguished by the presence of a coronal groove on
the outer umbrella surface;
Semaeostomae, typically with long, flowing oral arms and marginal tentacles;
CLASS SCYPHOZOA
Rhizostomeae, which lack true marginal tentacles as well as a central mouth, instead having
numerous tiny mouths on the edges of the oral arms.
ORDER CORONATAE
Coronates are one of the most abundant members of the midwater gelatinous zooplankton
community,
Most often found at mesopelagic or benthopelagic depths, though a few species are found
almost exclusively in shallow tropical waters.
ORDER CORONATAE
Coronates are easily distinguishable from all other medusa groups by the conspicuous coronal
groove they possess on the exumbrellar surface.
The ridges (termed pedalia) possess either sense organs (termed rhopalia) or tentacles.
The tentacles are solid and can occur singly or grouped between rhopalia.
ORDER SEMAEOSTOMAE
They most often have the ‘typical jellyfish’ appearance of a large, flattish or domeshaped body,
many marginal or submarginal filament-like tentacles
Long, flowing, fleshy oral arms emanating from the centre of the underside of the body.
ORDER SEMAEOSTOMAE
Most semaeostomes are thought to have a reduced polyp stage and a large medusa stage, but
the life cycle of most species remains unknown.
The polyps are asexually proliferated by side-budding, stolon budding, or formation of chitinous
cysts (podocysts) from the attachment disc.
ORDER RHIZOSTOMEAE
Rhizostomes are characterised by lacking marginal tentacles (though one species from the
Philippines and Australia has tentacle-like elongations of the marginal lappets).
And by the absence of a central mouth, which is present in all other medusae.
CLASS STAUROZOA
Order Stauromedusa
The Stauromedusae are benthic, being attached to seaweeds, rocks, and firm objects by a long,
trumpet-shaped column with an adhesive base.
They typically have eight arms, each with a terminal cluster of short, clubbed tentacles, but
considerable variation exists on this basic form.
CLASS STAUROZOA
Order Stauromedusa
The creeping planula is distinct compared with those of all other cnidarians, lacking cilia and
having a fixed number of endodermal cells.
Very little is currently known about the ecology and natural history of the stauromedusae.
CLASS CUBOZOA
Order Cubomedusae
The Cubozoa is a minor, entirely marine class in the Cnidaria, with only 17 currently recognised
species worldwide.
It was considered to be an order of the Scyphozoa and was considered as a separate grouping.
CLASS STAUROZOA
Order Cubomedusae
Was only recognised as a separate grouping when studies of the life cycle revealed total
metamorphosis of the polyp into the medusa.
CLASS STAUROZOA
Order Cubomedusae
highly complex eyes with lenses and retinas
pigment spots on the planula that may serve a photosensory function
sophisticated behaviours including purposeful avoidance of dark objects and;
copulation with sperm transfer.
CLASS STAUROZOA

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Order Cubomedusae
The body (or bell) is typically quite muscular, and is cuboid or elongated, but still squarish in
cross section.
The aperture of the bell is narrowed by a shelf-like projection, called a VELARIUM, thought to
aid the animal in jet propulsion.
CLASS STAUROZOA
Order Cubomedusae
PEDALIA, the fleshy base of the tentacles.
Cubozoan sensory structures (RHOPALIA), each typically containing six eyes plus a balance
organ, are located singly on each flat side of the bell.
CLASS STAUROZOA
Order Cubomedusae
These animals have numerous tentacles on each of the four pedalia, and there is no species
with more than one pedalium on each corner.
DOMO ARIGATO! 

a) Apparent Motion - we perceive

objects as moving when really
they are stationary. It becomes an
illusion then, as we perceive
objects that are not moving to in
fact be moving.
Form Perception
- This is the ability to recognize objects in a particular form within a certain environment.

Gestalt Principles
- Founded by Max Wetheimer along with Wolfgang Kohler and Kurt Koffka.
- Perceptions are different than the sum of their constituent sensations.
- Holds that our brains use certain built-in (innate) organizing principles to organize information.

a) Law of Proximity - the closer the two

figures are to each other, the more
likely we are to group them together
and see them part of the same object.
b) Law of Similarity - we tend to group
figures according to how closely they
resemble to each other.
c) Law of Good Continuation -
tendency to interpret intersecting lines
as being continuous, rather than as
changing direction radically.

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d) Law of Closure -tendency to complete

figures even gap exists.

e) Figure and Ground - Distinguishing

figure and ground.

Factors Affecting Perception

 Perceptual Learning
 Mental Set
 Motives and Needs
 Cognitive Styles

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