Belongs within: Deuterostomia.
Contains: Enterogona, Pleurogona.
The Urochordata, tunicates, are spineless chordates that possess a notochord and postanal tail in the tadpole-like larval stage but usually loose them when they metamorphose into adults. The tail is retained throughout life in the pelagic Appendicularia, which construct ‘houses’ around the body out of mucus that function in capturing food particles.
Characters (Miller & Harley 1996): Notochord, nerve cord and postanal tail present in free-swimming larvae; adults sessile or planktonic, usually enclosed in a tunic containing some cellulose.
<==Urochordata [Tunicata]
| i. s.: Palaeobotryllus taylori Müller 1977B93
| Ainiktozoon loganense Scourfield 1937B93
|--Shankouclava Chen, Huang et al. 2003EL11, CH03
| `--*S. anningense Chen, Huang et al. 2003 [=S. shankouense Chen, Huang et al. 2003 (n. n.)]CH03
`--+--OctacnemusMH96 [SorberaceaEL11]
|--OikopleuraSD10 [AppendiculariaEL11, Appendiculariae, Larvacea, Oikopleuridae]
| |--O. ablicansPB02
| |--O. dioicaSD10
| |--O. gracilisSD10
| |--O. intermediaSD10
| |--O. labrodariensisSD10
| |--O. longicaudaSD10
| |--O. rufescensG90
| `--O. vanhoeffeniB26
`--Ascidiacea [Ascidiae]EL11
| i. s.: Clarelina molucensisRZ03
| PhallusiaCGS00
| |--P. mamillata (Cuvier 1815)LB12
| `--P. nigraB79
| PolyandrocarpaB79
| |--P. graveiB79
| |--P. tinctaB79
| `--P. zorritensisGO78
| Ctenicella appendiculata [incl. C. appendiculata var. korotneffi]PP64
| Distomus variolosusM62
| Asterocarpa coeruleaHS01
| Permosoma tunicatum Jaekel 1918B93
| CynthiaS17
| |--C. intestinalis [=Ascidia (Cynthia) intestinalis]G20
| |--C. luridaS17
| |--C. melocactusH04
| |--C. microcosmus [=Ascidia (Cynthia) microcosmus]G20
| |--C. momus [=Ascidia (Cynthia) momus]G20
| `--C. praeputialisH15
| FragariumS17
| |--F. areolatumS17
| `--F. elegansH04
| Synoecum turgensH04
| Polycyclus cyaneusH04
| Polyclinella azemaiPP64
| Morchallium argusS17
| Leptoclinum durumM01
| Pareugyrioides filholiPG98
|--EnterogonaS79
`--PleurogonaS79
*Type species of generic name indicated
References
[B93] Benton, M. J. 1993. Basal deuterostomes (chaetognaths, hemichordates, calcichordates, cephalochordates and tunicates). In: Benton, M. J. (ed.) The Fossil Record 2 pp. 529–535. Chapman & Hall: London.
[B26] Bigelow, H. B. 1926. Plankton of the offshore waters of the Gulf of Maine. Bulletin of the Bureau of Fisheries 40 (2): 1–509.
[B79] Buss, L. W. 1979. Habitat selection, directional growth and spatial refuges: why colonial animals have more hiding places. In: Larwood, G., & B. R. Rosen (eds) Biology and Systematics of Colonial Organisms pp. 459–497. Academic Press: London.
[CGS00] Cameron, C. B., J. R. Garey & B. J. Swalla. 2000. Evolution of the chordate body plan: new insights from phylogenetic analyses of deuterostome phyla. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 97 (9): 4469–4474.
[CH03] Chen, J.-Y., D.-Y. Huang, Q.-Q. Peng, H.-M. Chi, Z.-Q. Wang & M. Feng. 2003. The first tunicate from the Early Cambrian of South China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 100 (14): 8314–8318.
[EL11] Erwin, D. H., M. Laflamme, S. M. Tweedt, E. A. Sperling, D. Pisani & K. J. Peterson. 2011. The Cambrian conundrum: early divergence and later ecological success in the early history of animals. Science 334: 1091–1097.
[GO78] Gallardo S., C., & C. Osorio R. 1978. Hiatella solida (Sowerby, 1834) (Mollusca: Hiatellidae) on Concholepas concholepas (Bruguière, 1789) and other substrates. Veliger 20 (3): 274–278.
[G20] Goldfuss, G. A. 1820. Handbuch der Naturgeschichte vol. 3. Handbuch der Zoologie pt 1. Johann Leonhard Schrag: Nürnberg.
[G90] Goy, J. 1990. Preliminary observations on the zooplankton of Shark Bay, Western Australia, with emphasis on medusae and description of a new rhizostome jellyfish (Cnidaria, Scyphozoa). In: Berry, P. F., S. D. Bradshaw & B. R. Wilson (eds) Research in Shark Bay: Report of the France-Australe Bicentenary Expedition Committee pp. 107–113. Western Australian Museum.
[H04] Haeckel, E. 1899–1904. Kunstformen der Natur. Bibliographisches Institut: Leipzig und Wien.
[H15] Hedley, C. 1915. Presidential address. Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 49 (1): 1–77, pls 1–7.
[LB12] Luque, Á. A., A. Barrajón, J. M. Remón, D. Moreno & L. Moro. 2012. Marginella glabella (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Marginellidae): a new alien species from tropical West Africa established in southern Mediterranean Spain through a new introduction pathway. Marine Biodiversity Records 5: e17.
[MH96] Miller, S. A., & J. P. Harley. 1996. Zoology 3rd ed. Wm. C. Brown Publishers: Dubuque (Iowa).
[M01] M’Intosh, W. C. 1901. The coloration of marine animals. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, series 7, 7: 221–240.
[M62] Monniot, F. 1962. Recherches sur les graviers a Amphioxus de la région de Banyuls-sur-Mer. Vie et Milieu 13: 231–322.
[PP64] Peres, J. M., & J. Picard. 1964. Nouveau manuel de bionomie benthique de la mer Mediterranee. Recueil des Travaux de la Station Marine d’Endoume, Bulletin 31 (27): 5–137.
[PB02] Perkins, F. O., J. R. Barta, R. E. Clopton, M. A. Peirce & S. J. Upton. 2002. Phylum Apicomplexa Levine, 1970. In: Lee, J. J., G. F. Leedale & P. Bradbury (eds) An Illustrated Guide to the Protozoa: Organisms traditionally referred to as Protozoa, or newly discovered groups 2nd ed. vol. 1 pp. 190–369. Society of Protozoologists: Lawrence (Kansas).
[PG98] Probert, P. K., & S. L. Grove. 1998. Macrobenthic assemblages of the continental shelf and upper slope off the west coast of South Island, New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 28: 259–280.
[RZ03] Romanenko, L. A., N. V. Zhukova, M. Rhode, A. M. Lysenko, V. M. Mikhailov & E. Stackebrandt. 2003. Pseudoalteromonas agarivorans sp. nov., a novel marine agarolytic bacterium. International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology 53: 125–131.
[S79] Sabbadin, A. 1979. Colonial structure and genetic patterns in ascidians. In: Larwood, G., & B. R. Rosen (eds) Biology and Systematics of Colonial Organisms pp. 433–444. Academic Press: London.
[S17] Sars, G. O. 1917. An Account of the Crustacea of Norway with short descriptions and figures of all the species vol. 6. Copepoda. Cyclopoida pts 11–12. Clausidiidae, Lichomolgidae (part). Bergen Museum: Bergen.
[SD10] Savelieva, A. V., & S. S. Dautov. 2010. Taxonomic identification and population density of appendicularian found in Vostok Bay of the Japan Sea (Tunicata, Appendicularia). In: China-Russia Bilateral Symposium: Proceedings of the China-Russia Bilateral Symposium of “Comparison on Marine Biodiversity in the Northwest Pacific Ocean”, 10–11 October 2010, Qingdao (China) pp. 193–200. Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; A. V. Zhirmunsky Institute of Marine Biology, Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.