Acoela

Acoela
Many flatworm-like, orange individuals of the Waminoa acoel on a Plerogyra coral (whitish bubbles)
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Xenacoelomorpha
Subphylum: Acoelomorpha
Order: Acoela
Uljanin, 1870

Acoela, or the acoels, is an order of small and simple invertebrates in the subphylum Acoelomorpha of phylum Xenacoelomorpha, a deep branching bilaterian group of animals, which resemble flatworms. Historically they were treated as an order of turbellarian flatworms.

The etymology of "acoel" is from the Ancient Greek words (a), the alpha privative, expressing negation or absence, and κοιλία (koilía), meaning "cavity". This refers to the fact that acoels have a structure lacking a fluid-filled body cavity.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.