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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


 

OG20
Acanthophyllum baculoides (Počta, 1902) OG20
OG22
Acanthophyllum baculoides (Počta, 1902) OG22
VZ28
Actinostroma frustulum VZ28
VZ29
Actinostroma perspicuum VZ29
PB878
Anthozoa Ehrenberg, 1831 PB878
JK6516
Anthozoa Ehrenberg, 1831 JK6516
VZ46a
Caninophyllum sumphuens VZ46
HF2708
Clausastraea pseudoconfluens HF2708
HF108
Favia macrotheca HF108
p2301
Heliolites p2301
p2301b
Heliolites p2301
HF1341a
Labes atramentosa HF1341
HF1341
Labes atramentosa HF1341
HF3031
Latomeandra juettneri HF3031
VZ44
Lihostrotion proliferum VZ44
BB432
Lithostrotion junceum BB432
BB430
Schizophyllum quadrigenium BB430
VZ67
Syringopora geniculata VZ67
HF2707
Thecosmilia virgulina HF2707
 

In the Virtual Museum there are total 4792 samples

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