Phylum Loricifera

By: Jose Ruel Debuton & Samantha Irish Aljo

The Phylum Loricifera
● Loricifera (from Latin, lorica, corselet
(armour) + ferre, to bear)
● Loricifera were discovered recently (1983)
● Dwell in all marine sediments in deep waters
● Around 100 species are collected but only a few
have been identified
Their body is divided into three parts, the head, the neck,
and the trunk region

They can withdraw their head into their neck intro their
trunks for protection

Scalids and lorica protects the loricifera

• They are bilaterally symmetric and each of their
scalids is connected to the brain by nerves

• A ganglion in their trunk is also connected to

their stomach

• They move by using their spines or mouth

cones
Most of the larvae are acoelomates while adults are either
pseudocoelomates or acoelomates.
• They feed by piercing plants or animals
with stylets near their mouth and then
sucking up their body fluids.
Loriciferans are either male or female

Loricifera have very complicated life cycles with

both sexual and asexual forms of reproduction.

Fertilization is suspected to be parthenogenetic

• Loricifera go into several molting states and a resting
state that lets them reach adulthood

• These larvae use their feet for different modes of

transportation but ultimately molt these when they
reach adulthood 

• Very little is known about loriciferan embryology, but

the cleavage is holoblastic, and the so-called Higgins
larva is the first postembryonic stage identified.
• Three species have been found in hypersaline and
completely anoxic regions of the Mediterranean

• They are the first ever evidence of metazoan life spent in

completely anoxic and dark areas

• They are able to survive here due to their lack of

mitochondria and they're reliance on hydrogenosomes

• Loricifera is the only animal of this size (0.3mm - 1

mm) and complexity that do not have a mitochondria
3 Families of Loricifera
• Pliciloricidae 
• Nanaloricidae  
• Urnaloricidae
Pliciloricidae  
•  Pliciloricidae are a family of marine organisms in the phylum
Loricifera.
• found at depths of 120–260 m.
•  Pliciloricus leocaudatus  is characterized by having four new kinds
of scalids in the second row and an additional row of alternating
plates in the eighth row.    
•   The second species Pliciloricus shukeri  is characterized in having
a secondary double organ in the third row.
Nanaloricidae
• Armorloricus elegans
• They are found at all depths, in different sediment types, and in all
latitudes.
• They are characterised by a protective outer case called a lorica and
their habitat is in the spaces between marine gravel to which they
attach themselves.
• They are among the most recently discovered groups of animals.
• Nanaloricidae
• 15 trichoscalids: use to jumping
• 6-10 plates
• nanaloricids prefer sand with
low levels of detritus
• body cavity is absent
• Pliciloricidae
• 15 trichoscalids: used for
swimming
• no plates
• pliciloricids are often found in
such deep-sea sediments below
20,000 ft; 6,100 m
• body cavity is spacious
Light and Scanning electron micrographs of adults
Armorliricus Elegans   Pliciloricus Leocaudatus
(Family of Nanaloricidae) ( Family of Pliciloricidae)
Urnaloricidae
• new species of Loricifera, Urnaloricus is described from the Faroe
Bank, located Southwest of the Faroe Islands, North Atlantic.
• The new species does not fit into any known families of Loricifera and
therefore it is grouped into a new family Urnaloricidae.
• The new species is characterized by having a very complicated life
cycle.