Anthozoa

Anthozoa are a class in the phylum Cnidaria. It includes the sea anemones and the corals. It is a monophyletic clade, one of two in the Cnidaria. The other is the Medusozoa.[1]

Anthozoa
Temporal range:
late Ediacaran to present
Scheibenanemonen (Actinodiscus spec).jpg
Stony corals
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Phylum:
Class:
Anthozoa
Subclass:
A stony coral in its natural habitat
Giant green anemone, Southern California

The class does not have a medusa larval stage in its development, unlike the rest of the phylum. Like all Cnidaria, their food-catching and defense are done by nematocysts, which are extremely effective stinging cells. Over 6,100 species have been described.[2][3]

There are three subclasses:

Anthozoa Media

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Daly M. et al 2007. The phylum Cnidaria: a review of phylogenetic patterns and diversity 300 years after Linnaeus. Zootaxa, 1668: 127–182, Wellington. Abstract - PDF
  2. Crowther A.L. (2011). "Class Anthozoa Ehrenberg, 1834" (PDF). In Z.-Q. Zhang (ed.). Animal biodiversity: an outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness. Zootaxa. Vol. 3148. pp. 19–23. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3148.1.5.
  3. estimates of species numbers differ between authorities.