Lophotrochozoa

• Overview
• Taxonomy
• Phyla
• Sources

Overview

Taxonomy

The Infrakingdom Lophotrochozoa is further organized into finer groupings including:

• Superphylum (2): Eutrochozoa · Lophophorata
• Phylum (8): Annelida · Brachiopoda · Bryozoa · Echiura · Entoprocta · Mollusca · Nemertea · Sipuncula

Phyla

Annelida

The annelids, collectively called Annelida (from Latin anellus "little ring"), are a large phylum of animals comprising the segmented worms, with about 15,000 modern species including the well-known earthworms and leeches. They are found in most wet environments, and include many terrestrial, freshwater, and especially marine species (such as the polychaetes), as well as some which are parasitic or mutualistic. They range in length from under a millimeter to over 3 meters (the seep tube worm Lamellibrachia luymesi). [more]

Brachiopoda

Brachiopods (from Latin bracchium, arm + New Latin -poda, foot) are a small phylum of benthic invertebrates. Also known as lamp shells (or lampshells), "brachs" or Brachiopoda, they are sessile, two-valved, marine animals with an external morphology superficially resembling pelecypods (for instance, clams) of phylum Mollusca to which they are not closely related. It is estimated by paleobiologists that 99 percent of all documented lamp-shell species are both fossils and extinct. [more]

Bryozoa

Bryozoans are tiny colonial animals that generally build stony skeletons of calcium carbonate, superficially similar to coral (although some species lack any calcification in the colony and instead have a mucilaginous structure.) Bryozoa are also known as moss animals or moss animacules (which is the literal Greek translation of bryozoa) or as sea mats. They generally prefer warm, tropical waters, but are known to occur worldwide. There are about 8,000 living species, with several times that number of fossil forms known. [more]

Echiura

The Echiura, or spoon worms, are a small group of marine animals. They are often considered to be a group of annelids, although they lack the segmented structure found in other members of that group, and so may also be treated as a separate phylum. However, phylogenetic analyses of DNA sequences place echiurans and pogonophorans within the Annelida. The Echiura fossilise poorly and the earliest known specimen is from the Upper Carboniferous (called the Pennsylvanian in North America). However, U-shaped fossil burrows that could be Echiuran have been found dating back to the Cambrian. [more]

Entoprocta

Entoprocta (Gr. e?t??, entos inside + p???t??, proktos anus) is a phylum of small aquatic animals, ranging in size from 0.5 mm to 5.0 mm. They have a lophophore, and as their name suggests, are distinguished from other lophophorates by the position of the anus inside the ring of cilia rather than outside. Other names include goblet worm and kamptozoan. [more]

Mollusca

Molluscs (British spelling) or mollusks (American spelling) are animals belonging to phylum Mollusca. The word mollusc is derived from the French mollusque, which originated from the Latin molluscus, meaning thin-shelled, from mollis, soft. The scientific study of molluscs is known as malacology. [more]

Nemertea

Nemertea is a phylum of invertebrate animals also known as ribbon worms or proboscis worms . Most of the 1,400 or so species are marine, with a few living in fresh water and a small number of terrestrial forms; they are found in all marine habits, and throughout the world's oceans . Nemerteans are named for Nemertes, one of the Nereids of Greek mythology, and alternative spellings for the phylum have included Nemertini and Nemertinea. [more]

Sipuncula

The Sipuncula or Sipunculida, sipunculid worms or peanut worms, are a phylum containing 144-320 species (estimates vary) of bilaterally symmetrical, unsegmented marine worms. Sipunculid worm jelly (???) is a delicacy in the town of Xiamen in Fujian province of China. [more]

At least 462 species and subspecies belong to the Phylum Sipuncula.

More info about the Phylum Sipuncula may be found here.

Sources

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