Pleurobrachia swimming with trailing tentacles.

Mnemiopsis, whose native range is along the tropical Atlantic coast of South America has become an invasive in the Black and Caspian Seas.

Beroe, a ctenophore without tentacles, feeds on other ctenophores by swimming with its large gaping "mouth" open.

Coeloplana, a benthic ctenophore with an appearance more like a sea slug than a jelly fish. This animal was observed off Darwin in Australia.

A high magnification of the ciliary rows making up part of a single ctene.

A labeled image of a cydippid larva.

Structure Symmetry: Biradial. Body Cavity: Not present. Body Covering: Epidermis, collenchyme (contains true muscle cells), Support: Hydrostatic "skeleton". Digestive System: Digestive cavity open at one end. Animal is a carnivore. It captures animals with colloblasts (adhesive cells) or nematocysts(?) in one species. Circulatory System: None. Locomotion: Move by ciliated plates, the ctenes. Excretory System: None. Nervous System: Simple nerve net with a statocyst at the aboral pole. Endocrine System: None. B. Reproduction: Reproductive System: Specialized gonads. Eggs and sperm are produced. Development: Determinate cleavage; cydippid larva with some bilateral features. C. Ecology: Found in marine environments; generally pelagic. SYSTEMATICS OF THE CTENOPHORA Hinde (2001) presents a classification system for the Ctenophora in which the animals with tentacles occupy a single class and the few without tentacles (the Beroids or Nuda) occupy the other class. However, molecular work by Podar et al. (2001) suggests that the taxonomic structure of the ctenophores is much more complex than the dichotomy of two classes. Furthermore, they support a more derived position for the Beroids (Class Nuda below). Reviews of basal metazoans (Collins et al. 2005; and Halanych 2004) also provide evidence that the ctenophores are the sister group to the Cnidaria+Bilateria. That is, the ctenopora are more basal or primitive relative to the Cnidarians, a view that is not supported by morphological work like that of Nielsen (2001) who interprets the body plan of the ctenophores as a reduced triploblastic organism that has affinities with the

deuterostomes. I will retain the conservative system of ctenophore classification until the structure of the phylum can be confirmed by more work. HIERARCHICAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE CTENOPHORA Taxonomy of the Phylum after the system of the system of Hinde (2001) in which the ctenophores have 2 unequal classes. I use this system with the caveat that Brusca and Brusca (2003) question the monophyly of the two class system. Descriptions of the following taxa were taken from Barnes (1984), Brusca and Brusca (2003), Hickman (1973), Hinde (2001), Nielsen (2001), Storer and Usinger (1965), Pechenik (2005), Ruppert et al. (2004), and Tudge (2000).

CLASS TENTACULATA (6 ORDERS) Animals with 2 tentacles. Cestum, Velamen, Aulococtena, Bathyctena, Callianira, Dryodora, Euplokamis, Hormiphora, Lampea, Mertensia, Pleurobrachia, Tinerfe, Ganesha, Bolinopsis, Deiopea, Leucothea, Mnemiopsis, Ocyropsis, Coeloplana, Ctenoplana, Lyrocteis, Savangia, Tjalfiella. CLASS NUDA (1 ORDER) No tentacles. Body compressed with large stomodaeum and a wide, flexible mouth. Predators of other ctenophores. Beroe, Neis.