Species Profile
Ascidia
Sea squirt
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumChordata
ClassAscidiacea
OrderUnknown
FamilyUnknown
Introduction
Ascidia lives attached to rocks in shallow seas.
It is filter-feeding and sac-like.
Important for understanding chordate evolution.
Size & Structure
01
Sac-like unsegmented body
02
Covered by tunic made of tunicin
03
Two siphons: incurrent and excurrent
04
Usually translucent or yellowish
Ascidia — 3D Model
No 3D model available
General Features
- Coelom
- Coelomate
- Body plan
- Tube within a tube body plan, Deuterostomous
- Germ layer
- Triploblastic
- Metamerism
- Absent
- Body symmetry
- Bilateral (larva), asymmetrical (adult)
- Fertilization
- External
- Digestion type
- Complete
- Nervous system
- Dorsal nerve cord in larva, reduced in adult
- Excretory organ
- Neural gland
- Body temperature
- Poikilothermic, stenohaline
- Circulatory type
- Open, single
- Development type
- Indirect
- Respiratory type
- Pharyngeal respiration
- Mode of excretion
- Ammonotelism
- Circulation system
- Open
- Skeleton structure
- Absent
- Level of Organisation
- Organ system level
- Regulation of Osmosis
- Osmoregulator
Ecology
Efficient filter feeder
Cleans marine water
Part of benthic community
Economic Importance
Evolutionary biology studies
Biofouling research relevance
Educational specimen