Loricifera is a small phylum of marine sediment-dwelling animals with about a dozen known species. The phylum was discovered in 1983 by Reinhardt Kristensen. The animals have a head, mouth and digestive system as well as a set of specialized umbrella skeleton like scales at each end that are used to move the animals. There is no circulatory system and no endocrine system. The body cavity is a pseudocoelom with a mouth and an anus. The animals are bisexual and probably oviparous. They have no fossil record. EM image of Pliciloricus enigmatus, from nasa. ... Jump to: navigation, search Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Jump to: navigation, search Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria Placozoa Subregnum Bilateria Acoelomorpha Orthonectida Rhombozoa Myxozoa Superphylum Deuterostomia Chordata (vertebrates, etc. ... Jump to: navigation, search Phylum (plural: phyla) is a taxon used in the classification of animals, adopted from the Greek phylai the clan-based voting groups in Greek city-states. ... Sediment is any particulate matter that can be transported by fluid flow and which eventually is deposited as a layer of solid particles on the bed or bottom of a body of water or other liquid. ... Jump to: navigation, search Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria Placozoa Subregnum Bilateria Acoelomorpha Orthonectida Rhombozoa Myxozoa Superphylum Deuterostomia Chordata (vertebrates, etc. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Reinhardt Kristensen is an invertebrate biologist, noted for the discovery of three new phyla of microscopic animals: the Loricifera in 1983, the Cycliophora in 1995, and the Micrognathozoa in 2000. ... The endocrine system is a control system of ductless endocrine glands that secrete chemical messengers called hormones that circulate within the body via the bloodstream to affect distant organs. ... A pseudocoelom is a body cavity that surrounds the tissue of the endoderm layer of the cell. ...
Their closest relatives are thought to be the Kinorhyncha and Priapulida with which they constitute the taxon Scalidophora. Orders Cyclorhagida Homalorhagida Kinorhyncha (Gr. ... Priapulida (priapulid worms, or penis worms) are a phylum of marine worms with an extensible spiny proboscis. ... Jump to: navigation, search Scalidophora is a group of marine pseudocoelomate invertebrates, consisting of the three phyla Kinorhyncha, Priapulida, and Loricifera. ...
Adrianov, A. V.; Malakhov, V. and Yushin, V. (1989): Loricifera a new taxon of marine invertebrates.
Gad, G. (2004): A new genus of Nanaloricidae (Loricifera) from deep-sea sediments of volcanic origin in the Kilinailau Trench north of Papua New Guinea.
Kristensen, R. (1983): Loricifera, a new phylum with aschelmintes characters from meiobenthos.
The mouth is surrounded by nine rings of bristly scales, the first set of which point forward, the rest backward.
The body is encased in several hard plates that resemble a corset, from which the group gets the name Loricifera, meaning “corset-bearer.” At the hind end of the body is an anus.
Much of the body cavity of adults is filled with either developing eggs or testes.
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