Belongs within: Gnathifera.
Contains: Aidanosagitta.
Chaetognatha, arrow worms, are small marine animals from 2 to 120 mm in length. Superficially, they are somewhat fish-like, with an elongate body bearing lateral and terminal fins, despite not being closely related to vertebrates. The actual relationships of chaetognaths have long been contentious, and even now have not been firmly established though they probably hold a reasonably basal position within the protostomes. The head of chaetognaths bears a number of grasping chitinous spines covered in rest by a hood that can be extended for capturing prey. The majority of chaetognaths are planktonic though some, such as the genus Spadella, are benthic. Living chaetognaths may be divided between the Phragmophora and Aphragmophora based on the presence or absence, respectively, of transverse musculature in the body.
The Protoconodontida, Cambrian-Ordovician phosphatised spine-shaped fossils that have otherwise been thought related to conodonts, may represent fossilised chaetognath spines. It has been suggested that they may have been organic like modern chaetognath spines during life and only become secondarily phosphatised during fossilisation (Szaniawski 2002). The Early Cambrian Pseudoconodontida were similar in overall appearance but differed in internal microstructure: whereas protoconodonts grew by basal addition of growth laminae from a base that was presumably partially embedded in secretory tissue, pseudoconodonts have non-laminate, longitudinally fibrous structure comprised of rod-like crystallites and were probably entirely surficial (Landing 1995).
Characters (Szaniawski 2002): Bilaterally symmetrical animals with body divided between a rounded or triangular flattened head and an elongate, fluid-filled trunk supported by a hydroskeleton. Head usually armed with one or two paired rows of small teeth located antero-ventrally and a group of large grasping spines postero-laterally; teeth and spines covered by a retractable hood when at rest. Trunk with one or two pairs of lateral fins and a terminal horizontal tail fin. Trunk and dorsal surface of head with multi-layered epidermis lacking cuticle; ventral surface of head with mono-layered epidermis and cuticle. Subterminal anus.
Chaetognatha [Chaetognathi]
|--Protosagitta Hu in Chen et al. 2002EL11, HE04
| `--P. spinosa Hu 2002C12
|--Paraspadella [Phragmophora]WT06
| `--P. gotoiWT06
|--ProtoconodontidaL95
| | i. s.: ‘Protohertzina’ cultrata Missarzhevsky 1977L95
| |--Yunnanodus Wang & Jiang in Jiang 1980L95
| | `--Y. doleres Wang & Jiang 1980WS93
| |--Amphigeisina [Amphigeisinacea, Amphigeisinidae]L95
| | `--A. danica (Poulsen 1966)L95
| |--Gapparodus Abaimova 1978L95
| | `--G. bisulcata (Müller 1959)L95
| |--Hertzina Müller 1959L95
| | |--*H. americana Müller 1959M62
| | `--H. elongata Muller 1959L95
| `--Phakelodus Miller 1984S02, L95
| |--P. elongatus (Zhang in An et al. 1983)S02
| |--P. savitzkyiS02
| `--P. tenuis (Müller 1959) [=Prooneotodus tenuis]S02
|--PseudoconodontidaL95
| |--ProtohertzinaceaL95
| | |--Maldeotaia bandalica Singh & Shukla 1981L95
| | |--Protohertzina Missarzhevsky 1973S02
| | | `--*P. anabarica Missarzhevsky 1973 [incl. P. unguliformis Missarzhevsky 1973]L95
| | `--Mongolodus Missarzhevsky 1977 [incl. Ganloudina He in Yang & He 1984L95
| | `--‘Ganloudina’ symmetrica He in Yang & He 1984L95
| `--StrictocorniculaceaL95
| |--Rhombocorniculum Walliser 1958DJ71 [RhombocorniculidaeL95]
| | `--R. cancellatum (Cobbold 1921)L95 [=Helenia cancellataDJ71; incl. *R. comleyense Walliser 1958DJ71]
| `--StrictocorniculidaeL95
| | i. s.: ‘Rhombocorniculum’ insolutum Missarzhevsky in Missarzhevsky & Mambetov 1981L95
| |--Mongolitubulus squamifer Missarzhevsky 1977WS93
| |--Rushtonites Hinz 1987L95
| | `--R. spinosus Hinz 1987WS93
| `--Strictocorniculum Landing 1995L95
| `--*S. vanallerum Landing 1995L95
`--Sagitta Quoy & Gaimard 1827 [Aphragmophora]S02
|--S. betodiZS10
|--S. bipunctulataPB02
|--S. crassaKW95
|--S. elegansGD00
| |--S. e. elegansCS77
| `--S. e. articaCS77
|--S. enflataZS10
|--S. hamata [=Krohnia hamata]O01
|--S. hexapteraB70
|--S. lyraB70
|--S. maxima Conant 1896S02
|--S. nagaeZS10
|--S. robustaG90
|--S. scrippsaeB70
|--S. serratodentataB26
|--S. tasmanicaB70
`--S. zetesiosB70
Chaetognatha incertae sedis:
Paucijaculum samamithion Schram 1973S02
Spadella [Spadellidae]HO09
|--S. cephalopteraHO09
`--S. nunezi Casanova & Moreau 2004F05
Eukrohnia hamataB26
Pterosagitta dracoB26
Flaccisagitta enflataHO09
Eognathacantha Chen & Huang 2002CH02
`--*E. ercainella Chen & Huang 2002CH02
Coelocerodontus Ethington 1959S02
|--*C. trigonius Ethington 1959DJ71
|--C. biconvexus Bultynck 1970WSQ86
|--C. burkei Druce & Jones 1971DJ71
|--C. primitivus (Müller 1959) [=Furnishina primitiva]DJ71
|--C. rotundatus Druce & Jones 1971DJ71
`--C. tricarinatus (Nogami 1967) [=Hertzina tricarinata]DJ71
AidanosagittaKS03
Titerina rokycanensis Kraft & Mergl 1989HE04
Pseudosagitta maximaHE04
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
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