Species Profile
Balanoglossus
Acorn worm
KingdomAnimalia
PhylumHemichordata
ClassEnteropneusta
OrderUnknown
FamilyUnknown
Introduction
Balanoglossus is a free-living marine hemichordate.
It inhabits sandy and muddy sea shores.
It is important in understanding chordate evolution.
Size & Structure
01
Worm-like soft body
02
Body divided into proboscis, collar, and trunk
03
Brownish or pale yellow colour
04
Numerous gill slits in trunk region
Balanoglossus — 3D Model
General Features
- Coelom
- Enterocoelous coelom
- Body plan
- Tube within a tube body plan (Deuterostomous)
- Germ layer
- Triploblastic
- Metamerism
- Absent (body divided into proboscis, collar, trunk)
- Body symmetry
- Bilateral symmetry
- Fertilization
- External
- Digestion type
- Complete (extracellular digestion)
- Nervous system
- Diffuse nerve net with dorsal nerve cord
- Excretory organ
- Proboscis gland with glomerulus
- Body temperature
- Poikilothermic, euryhaline
- Circulatory type
- Present, open circulation, single
- Development type
- Indirect (tornaria larva)
- Respiratory type
- Gill slits and diffusion
- Mode of excretion
- Ammonotelism
- Circulation system
- Open
- Skeleton structure
- Absent
- Level of Organisation
- Organ level
- Regulation of Osmosis
- Osmoconformer
Ecology
Burrows and aerates marine sediments
Feeds on detritus and microorganisms
Helps nutrient recycling in coastal areas
Economic Importance
Important in evolutionary biology
Used in embryological studies
Indicator of healthy marine sediments