Scyphozoa - Bibliography(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
Impact of Aurelia aurita medusae (Cnidaria, Scyphozoa) on standing stock and community composition of mesoplankton in the Kiel Bight (western Baltic Sea).
Gershwin, L.A. Systematics and biogeography of the jellyfish Aurelia labiata (Cnidaria: Scyphozoa).
Larson, R.J. Pelagic scyphomedusae (Scyphozoa: Coronatae and Semaeostomeae) of the Southern Ocean.
The class Scyphozoa comprises the familiar jellyfishes, of major ecological significance in the plankton.
Some, including the sessile stauromedusae and the polyp stages of metagenetic free-swimming medusae, occur as part of the benthos.
The salinity regimes under which the various species of Scyphozoa normally occur in the region is indicated in the check list below using zones established under the "Venice System" (Symposium on the Classification of Brackish Waters, 1958).
The medusae of Scyphozoa are unique in being typically much larger and anatomically more developed than the polyp.
Moreover, they are acraspedote, i.e., they lack a velum (a shelf of tissue projecting inward from the margin of the bell in hydromedusae and cubomedusae).
However, most specialists in the Cnidaria now recognize the Cubozoa as a distinct class (Cubozoa) because of their unique life cycles, morphology, and nematocyst complement.
Cnidarians are diploblastic -- that is, the body and tentacles consist of two cell layers, the endoderm (sometimes referred to as the gastrodermis) and the ectoderm (the epidermis).
Indeed, the medusa dominates the life cycle of members of the classes Cubozoa and Scyphozoa (Cubozoa was formerly considered an order of Scyphozoa, and some specialists still consider it as such).
Werner, B. New investigations on systematics and evolution of the class Scyphozoa and the phylumCnidaria.
Any of about 200 described species of free-swimming marine cnidarians (in the classes Scyphozoa and Cubozoa), many of which have a bell-shaped body.
The term is also frequently applied to certain other cnidarians that have a medusoid (bell- or saucer-shaped) body form, as, for example, the...
Gaseous wastes are eliminated by diffusion, and solid wastes in dissolved or undissolved form pass out through an opening in the body wall that serves the dual purposes of food intake...
Systematics of Scyphozoa(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-08)
These are sessile cup-shaped forms, and lack a free-swimming medusa.
The oral arms, often highly branched, have become fused in the center, closing off the central mouth and giving the jellyfish multiple mouth openings at the ends of the lateral arms.
The Cubozoa, or box jellies, were at one time included as an order of the Scyphozoa, but are now considered to be the sister group of the jellyfish.
IMMEDIATE MEDICAL ATTENTION MAY BE REQUIRED as their stinging may bring about
Jellyfish are any planktonic marine member of a group of invertebrate animals composed of about 200 described species of the class Scyphozoa (phylumCnidaria) or of the class Cubozoa, which was formerly considered an order of Scyphozoa.
The term, jellyfish, is also often used in referring to certain other cnidarians that have a medusoid (saucer- or bell-shaped) body form, such as hydromedusae, the siphonophores (including even the