Ptychophorae

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Ptychophorae
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Scyphozoa
Order: Rhizostomeae
Suborder: Ptychophorae
Gershwin & Davie, 2013

Ptychophorae is a suborder of rhizostome jellyfish, identified in 2013 by Gershwin and Davie.[1]

The word Ptychophorae is said to be derived from the Greek ptychos (fold, leaf, layer) and phoras (bearing), in reference to the hooded rhopalia.[1] The proper word for 'fold' in ancient Greek is however ptyx (πτύξ).[2]

Distinctive features[edit]

Ptychophorae are distinguished by the following features:

  • The body is globular.
  • The oral arms coalesce into a single short, ridged column, without scapulets.
  • The rhopalia is hooded, lacking typical pits.
  • There are 4 velar lappets per octant.
  • There 2 asymmetrical ocular lappets per octant.
  • The annular muscles are conspicuous.
  • The subgenital ostia are very small and round.
  • The stomach is circular and large.
  • There are 4 radial canals per octant, proximally unbranched, and fluted, and peripherally coalesced into vast open sinus with patchwork of jelly matrix.

Taxonomy[edit]

The single identified member of this suborder is the Bazinga rieki.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Gershwin, L. & Davie, P.J.F. (30 June 2013). "A remarkable new jellyfish (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa) from coastal Australia, representing a new suborder within the Rhizostomeae. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum — Nature 56(2)" (PDF). Queensland Museum. pp. 625–630. ISSN 0079-8835.
  2. ^ Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). A Greek-English Lexicon revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford: Clarendon Press.