Phoronis
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| domain | Eukaryota | Phoronis is a genus in a phylum of small marine animals called horseshoe worms. Phoronids build tubes of chitin to protect their soft bodies while filter-feeding with a lophophore. A swelling called an ampulla houses the stomach and anchors the animal inside the tube. Reproduction is typically sexual, generating free-swimming larvae called actinotrochs. After 20 days the larva settles on the seabed to replace its tentacles with a lophophore. The anus moves from the bottom to just outside the lophophore, changing the gut from upright to a U-bend. While the phylogeny is unclear, phoronids are probably related to brachiopods.
For more information, visit the Wikipedia entry. Get back to Phoronida |
| kingdom | Animalia | |
| clade | Brachiozoa | |
| phylum | Phoronida | |
| genus | Phoronis |
