- Acoelomorpha
Taxobox
name = Acoelomorphs
image_width = 100px
image_caption = "Flagellophora apelti", a nemertodermatida acoelomorpha
regnum =Animal ia
subregnum =Eumetazoa
unranked_phylum =Bilateria
phylum = Acoelomorpha
phylum_authority = Baguña & Riutort, 2004
subdivision_ranks = Classes
subdivision =
*Acoela
*Nemertodermatida The Acoelomorpha are a
phylum of animals with planula-like features and formerly considered to be in Platyhelmintha, but recently classified by Jaume Baguñà and Marta Riutort as a separate phylum, basal among theBilateria . The Acoela are very smallflatworm s that do not have agut . Digestion is accomplished by means of asyncytium that forms avacuole around ingested food. There are no epithelial cells lining the digestive vacuole. All other bilateral animals have a gut lined with epithelial cells. As a result, the acoels appear to be solid-bodied ("a-coel", or "no body cavity"). Acoels are almost entirely marine, living between grains ofsediment , swimming asplankton , or crawling onalgae . Acoels have astatocyst , which presumably helps them orient to gravity.References
* [http://devbio.umesci.maine.edu/styler/globalworming/platyhelm2003.html Platyhelminthes The nature of a controversial phylum] - retrieved
February 3 2006 External links
* [http://devbio.umesci.maine.edu/styler/globalworming/pintro.html Phylogeny of Lower Worms of the Meiofauna (Acoelomorpha)]
* [http://devbio.umesci.maine.edu/styler/turbellaria/turb2.php?action=1&code=12275 Acoelomorpha at the Turbellarian taxonomic database]
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