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Anthozoas

      Anthozoa is a class within the phylum Cnidaria that contains the sea anemones and corals. Unlike other cnidarians, anthozoans do not have a medusa stage in their development. Instead, they release sperm and eggs that form a planula, which attaches to some substrate on which the cnidarian grows. Some anthozoans can also reproduce asexually through budding. Like those of other cnidarians, the individual polyps have a cylindrical body crowned by a ring of tentacles surrounding the mouth. The mouth leads into a tubular pharynx which descends for some distance into the body before opening into the gastrovascular cavity that fills the interior of the body and tentacles. Unlike other cnidarians, however, the cavity is subdivided by a number of radiating partitions, or mesenteries. The gonads are also located within the cavity walls. All cnidarian species can feed by catching prey with nematocysts; sea anemones are capable of catching fish and corals of catching plankton. Some of the species also harbour a type of algae, dinoflagellates called zooxanthellae, in a symbiotic relationship; the reef building corals known as hermatypic corals rely on this symbiotic relationship particularly. The zooxanthellae benefit by using nitrogenous waste and carbon dioxide produced by the host or , and the cnidarian gains photosynthetic capability and increased calcium carbonate production in hermatypic corals. Anemones and certain species of coral live in isolation, however most corals form colonies of genetically identical polyps; these polyps closely resemble anemonies in structure, although are generally considerably smaller. Most kinds of stony coral live in all parts of the underwater world.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthozoa

A sketch of the anthozoan polype
Source: http://www.taxateca.com/claseanthozoa.html
Rhipidastraea soukupi HF2637
Rhipidastraea soukupi HF2641
Rhipidogyra flabellum (Michelin, 1843) HF3374
Rhipidogyra HF1117
Rhipidogyra HF3235
Rhipidogyridae HF1683
Rhipidogyridae HF1685
Rhipidogyridae HF1421
Rhipidogyridae HF1690
Rhipidogyridae HF3510
Rhipidogyridae HF1691
Rhipidogyridae HF1686
Rhipidogyridae HF1689
Rhipidogyridae HF1687
Rhipidogyridae HF1684
Rhipidogyridae HF1688
Rhizophyllum OG19
Rhyzophyllum OG1
Rhyzophyllum SM258
Rothastrea laurinaEliášová (1989a), Pl. 57, fig. 1, 2 HF1346

Virtual museum of the Czech Geological Survey, www.geology.cz, (C) Czech Geological Survey, 2011, v.0.99 [13.12.2011]