Acorn worm
Encyclopedia
The Acorn worms or Enteropneusta are a hemichordate
class of invertebrate
s, closely related to the echinoderm
s. There are about 90 species of acorn worm in the world, the main species for research being Saccoglossus kowaleskii.
All species are infaunal benthos
that either may be deposit feeders or suspension feeders. Some of these worms may grow to be very long; one particular species may reach a length of 2.5 metres (almost eight feet), although most acorn worms are much, much smaller.
One genus, Balanoglossus
, is also known as the tongue worm.
is located at the collar behind the proboscis.
The skin is covered with cilia
as well as glands that secrete mucus
. Some produce a bromide compound that gives them a medicinal smell and might protect them from bacteria and predators. Acorn worms move only sluggishly, using ciliary action and peristalsis
of the proboscis.
The mouth cavity is tubular, with a narrow diverticulum
or stomochord extending up into the proboscis. This diverticulum was once thought to be homologous
with the notochord
of chordates, hence the name "hemichordate" for the phylum. The mouth opens posteriorly into a pharynx
with a row of gill slits along either side. The remainder of the digestive system consists of an oesophagus and intestine
; there is no stomach.
In some families there are openings in the dorsal surface of the oesophagus connecting to the external surface, through which water from the food can be squeezed, helping to concentrate it. Digestion occurs in the intestine, with food material being pulled through by cilia, rather than by muscular action.
Acorn worms breathe by drawing in oxygenated water through their mouth. The water then flows out the animal's gills which are on its trunk. Thus, the acorn worm breathes about the same way as fish.
es. A dorsal blood vessel in the mesentery
above the gut and delivers blood to a sinus in the proboscis that contains a muscular sac acting as a heart
. Unlike the hearts of most other animals, however, this structure is a closed fluid-filled vesicle whose interior does not connect directly to the blood system. None the less, it does regularly pulsate, helping to push blood through the surrounding sinuses.
From the central sinus in the collar, blood flows to a complex series of sinuses and peritoneal
folds in the proboscis. This set of structures is referred to as a glomerulus and may have an excretory function, since acorn worms otherwise have no defined excretory system. From the proboscis, blood flows into a single blood vessel running underneath the digestive tract, from which smaller sinuses supply blood to the trunk, and back into the dorsal vessel.
The blood of acorn worms is colourless and acellular.
of nerves lies underneath the skin, and is concentrated into both dorsal and ventral nerve cords. While the ventral cord runs only as far as the collar, the dorsal cord reaches into the proboscis, and is partially separated from the epidermis in that region. This part of the dorsal nerve cord is often hollow, and may well be homologous with the brain of vertebrates. In acorn worms, it seems to be primarily involved with coordinating muscular action of the body during burrowing and crawling.
Acorn worms have no eyes, ears or other special sense organs, except for the ciliary organ in front of the mouth, which appears to be involved in filter feeding and perhaps taste
(3). There are, however, numerous nerve endings throughout the skin.
s. Some also have a postanal tail which may be homologous to the post-anal tail of vertebrates. An interesting trait is that its three-section body plan is no longer present in the vertebrates, except for the anatomy of the frontal neural tube, later developed into a brain which is divided into three main parts. This means some of the original anatomy of the early chordate ancestors is still present even if it is not always visible.
One theory is that the three-part body originates from an early common ancestor of all the deuterostome
s, and maybe even from a common bilateral ancestor of both the deuterostomes and protostome
s.
To obtain food
, many acorn worms swallow sand or mud that contains organic matter and microorganisms in the manner of earthworms (this is known as deposit feeding). At low tide, they stick out their rear ends at the surface and excrete coils of processed sediments (casts).
Another method that some acorn worms use to obtain food is to collect suspended particles of organic matter and microbes from the water. This is known as suspension feeding.
, having separate biological sexes, although at least some species are also capable of asexual reproduction
. They have paired gonad
s, which lie close to the pharynx and release the gamete
s through a small pore near to the gill slits. The female lays a large number of eggs embedded in a gelatinous mass of mucus, which are then externally fertilized
by the male before water currents break up the mass and disperse the individual eggs.
In most species, the eggs hatch into plankton
ic larvae with elongated bodies covered in cilia. In some species, these develop directly into adults, but in others, there is a free-swimming intermediate stage referred to as a tornaria larva. These are very similar in appearance to the bipinnaria
larvae of starfishes, with convoluted bands of cilia running around the body. Since the embryonic development of the blastula
within egg is also very similar to that of echinoderm
s, this suggests a close phylogenetic link between the two groups.
After a number of days or weeks, a groove begins to form around the larval midsection, with the anterior portion eventually destined to become the proboscis, while the remainder forms the collar and trunk. The larvae eventually settle down and change into tiny adults to take on the burrowing lifestyle. A few species, such as Saccoglossus kowalevskii, lack even the planktonic larval stage, hatching directly as miniature adults.
Hemichordata
Hemichordata is a phylum of marine deuterostome animals, generally considered the sister group of the echinoderms. They date back to the Lower or Middle Cambrian and include two main classes: Enteropneusta , and Pterobranchia. A third class, Planctosphaeroidea, is known only from the larva of a...
class of invertebrate
Invertebrate
An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...
s, closely related to the echinoderm
Echinoderm
Echinoderms are a phylum of marine animals. Echinoderms are found at every ocean depth, from the intertidal zone to the abyssal zone....
s. There are about 90 species of acorn worm in the world, the main species for research being Saccoglossus kowaleskii.
All species are infaunal benthos
Benthos
Benthos is the community of organisms which live on, in, or near the seabed, also known as the benthic zone. This community lives in or near marine sedimentary environments, from tidal pools along the foreshore, out to the continental shelf, and then down to the abyssal depths.Many organisms...
that either may be deposit feeders or suspension feeders. Some of these worms may grow to be very long; one particular species may reach a length of 2.5 metres (almost eight feet), although most acorn worms are much, much smaller.
One genus, Balanoglossus
Balanoglossus
Balanoglossus is an ocean-dwelling acorn worm genus of great zoological interest because, being a Hemichordate, it is an "evolutionary link" between invertebrates and vertebrates...
, is also known as the tongue worm.
Anatomy
Most acorn worms range from 9 to 45 cm (3.5 to 17.7 ) in length, with the largest species, Balanoglossus gigas, reaching 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) or more. The body is made up of three main parts: an acorn-shaped proboscis, a short fleshy collar that lies behind it, and a long, worm-like trunk. The creature's mouthMouth
The mouth is the first portion of the alimentary canal that receives food andsaliva. The oral mucosa is the mucous membrane epithelium lining the inside of the mouth....
is located at the collar behind the proboscis.
The skin is covered with cilia
Cilium
A cilium is an organelle found in eukaryotic cells. Cilia are slender protuberances that project from the much larger cell body....
as well as glands that secrete mucus
Mucus
In vertebrates, mucus is a slippery secretion produced by, and covering, mucous membranes. Mucous fluid is typically produced from mucous cells found in mucous glands. Mucous cells secrete products that are rich in glycoproteins and water. Mucous fluid may also originate from mixed glands, which...
. Some produce a bromide compound that gives them a medicinal smell and might protect them from bacteria and predators. Acorn worms move only sluggishly, using ciliary action and peristalsis
Peristalsis
Peristalsis is a radially symmetrical contraction and relaxation of muscles which propagates in a wave down the muscular tube, in an anterograde fashion. In humans, peristalsis is found in the contraction of smooth muscles to propel contents through the digestive tract. Earthworms use a similar...
of the proboscis.
Digestive system
Many acorn worms are detritus feeders, eating sand or mud and extracting organic detritus. Others feed on organic material suspended in the water, which they can draw into the mouth using the cilia on the gill bars. A groove lined with cilia lies just in front of the mouth and directs suspended food into the mouth and may allow the animal to taste.The mouth cavity is tubular, with a narrow diverticulum
Diverticulum
A diverticulum is medical or biological term for an outpouching of a hollow structure in the body. Depending upon which layers of the structure are involved, they are described as being either true or false....
or stomochord extending up into the proboscis. This diverticulum was once thought to be homologous
Homology (biology)
Homology forms the basis of organization for comparative biology. In 1843, Richard Owen defined homology as "the same organ in different animals under every variety of form and function". Organs as different as a bat's wing, a seal's flipper, a cat's paw and a human hand have a common underlying...
with the notochord
Notochord
The notochord is a flexible, rod-shaped body found in embryos of all chordates. It is composed of cells derived from the mesoderm and defines the primitive axis of the embryo. In some chordates, it persists throughout life as the main axial support of the body, while in most vertebrates it becomes...
of chordates, hence the name "hemichordate" for the phylum. The mouth opens posteriorly into a pharynx
Pharynx
The human pharynx is the part of the throat situated immediately posterior to the mouth and nasal cavity, and anterior to the esophagus and larynx. The human pharynx is conventionally divided into three sections: the nasopharynx , the oropharynx , and the laryngopharynx...
with a row of gill slits along either side. The remainder of the digestive system consists of an oesophagus and intestine
Intestine
In human anatomy, the intestine is the segment of the alimentary canal extending from the pyloric sphincter of the stomach to the anus and, in humans and other mammals, consists of two segments, the small intestine and the large intestine...
; there is no stomach.
In some families there are openings in the dorsal surface of the oesophagus connecting to the external surface, through which water from the food can be squeezed, helping to concentrate it. Digestion occurs in the intestine, with food material being pulled through by cilia, rather than by muscular action.
Acorn worms breathe by drawing in oxygenated water through their mouth. The water then flows out the animal's gills which are on its trunk. Thus, the acorn worm breathes about the same way as fish.
Circulatory system
Acorn worms have an open circulatory system, in which the blood flows through the tissues sinusSinus
- Anatomy :In anatomy, where a sinus is a sac or cavity in any organ or tissue:*Sinus , description of the general term*Paranasal sinuses, air cavities in the cranial bones, especially those near the nose, including:...
es. A dorsal blood vessel in the mesentery
Mesentery
In anatomy, the mesentery is the double layer of peritoneum that suspends the jejunum and ileum from the posterior wall of the abdomen. Its meaning, however, is frequently extended to include double layers of peritoneum connecting various components of the abdominal cavity.-Mesentery :The...
above the gut and delivers blood to a sinus in the proboscis that contains a muscular sac acting as a heart
Heart
The heart is a myogenic muscular organ found in all animals with a circulatory system , that is responsible for pumping blood throughout the blood vessels by repeated, rhythmic contractions...
. Unlike the hearts of most other animals, however, this structure is a closed fluid-filled vesicle whose interior does not connect directly to the blood system. None the less, it does regularly pulsate, helping to push blood through the surrounding sinuses.
From the central sinus in the collar, blood flows to a complex series of sinuses and peritoneal
Peritoneum
The peritoneum is the serous membrane that forms the lining of the abdominal cavity or the coelom — it covers most of the intra-abdominal organs — in amniotes and some invertebrates...
folds in the proboscis. This set of structures is referred to as a glomerulus and may have an excretory function, since acorn worms otherwise have no defined excretory system. From the proboscis, blood flows into a single blood vessel running underneath the digestive tract, from which smaller sinuses supply blood to the trunk, and back into the dorsal vessel.
The blood of acorn worms is colourless and acellular.
Respiratory system
Acorn worms continually form new gill slits as they grow in size, with some older individuals having more than a hundred on each side. Each slit consists of a branchial chamber opening to the pharynx through a U-shaped cleft and to the exterior through a dorso-lateral pore (see diagram below). Cilia push water through the slits, maintaining a constant flow. The tissues surrounding the slits are well supplied with blood sinuses.Nervous system
A plexusPlexus
A plexus is a part of nervous system. Plexus has a slightly different definition in vertebrates and in invertebrates.- In vertebrates :In vertebrates, a plexus is an area where nerves branch and rejoin. The electrical signals do not mix; rather, the fibres travel together with their electrical...
of nerves lies underneath the skin, and is concentrated into both dorsal and ventral nerve cords. While the ventral cord runs only as far as the collar, the dorsal cord reaches into the proboscis, and is partially separated from the epidermis in that region. This part of the dorsal nerve cord is often hollow, and may well be homologous with the brain of vertebrates. In acorn worms, it seems to be primarily involved with coordinating muscular action of the body during burrowing and crawling.
Acorn worms have no eyes, ears or other special sense organs, except for the ciliary organ in front of the mouth, which appears to be involved in filter feeding and perhaps taste
Taste
Taste is one of the traditional five senses. It refers to the ability to detect the flavor of substances such as food, certain minerals, and poisons, etc....
(3). There are, however, numerous nerve endings throughout the skin.
Similarities to chordates
Acorn worms are considered more highly specialised and advanced than other similarly shaped worm-like creatures. They have a circulatory system with a heart that also functions as a kidney. Acorn worms have gill-like structures that they use for breathing, similar to the gills of primitive fish. Therefore, acorn worms are sometimes said to be a link between classical invertebrates and vertebrateVertebrate
Vertebrates are animals that are members of the subphylum Vertebrata . Vertebrates are the largest group of chordates, with currently about 58,000 species described. Vertebrates include the jawless fishes, bony fishes, sharks and rays, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds...
s. Some also have a postanal tail which may be homologous to the post-anal tail of vertebrates. An interesting trait is that its three-section body plan is no longer present in the vertebrates, except for the anatomy of the frontal neural tube, later developed into a brain which is divided into three main parts. This means some of the original anatomy of the early chordate ancestors is still present even if it is not always visible.
One theory is that the three-part body originates from an early common ancestor of all the deuterostome
Deuterostome
Deuterostomes are a superphylum of animals. They are a subtaxon of the Bilateria branch of the subregnum Eumetazoa, and are opposed to the protostomes...
s, and maybe even from a common bilateral ancestor of both the deuterostomes and protostome
Protostome
Protostomia are a clade of animals. Together with the deuterostomes and a few smaller phyla, they make up the Bilateria, mostly comprising animals with bilateral symmetry and three germ layers...
s.
Lifestyle
Acorn worms are rarely seen by humans because of their lifestyle. They live in U-shaped burrows on the sea-bed, from the shoreline down to a depth of 10,000 ft. (3,050 m). The worms lie there with the proboscis sticking out of one opening in the burrow. Acorn worms are generally slow burrowers.To obtain food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
, many acorn worms swallow sand or mud that contains organic matter and microorganisms in the manner of earthworms (this is known as deposit feeding). At low tide, they stick out their rear ends at the surface and excrete coils of processed sediments (casts).
Another method that some acorn worms use to obtain food is to collect suspended particles of organic matter and microbes from the water. This is known as suspension feeding.
Reproduction
Acorn worms are dioeciousDioecious
Dioecy is the property of a group of biological organisms that have males and females, but not members that have organs of both sexes at the same time. I.e., those whose individual members can usually produce only one type of gamete; each individual organism is thus distinctly female or male...
, having separate biological sexes, although at least some species are also capable of asexual reproduction
Asexual reproduction
Asexual reproduction is a mode of reproduction by which offspring arise from a single parent, and inherit the genes of that parent only, it is reproduction which does not involve meiosis, ploidy reduction, or fertilization. A more stringent definition is agamogenesis which is reproduction without...
. They have paired gonad
Gonad
The gonad is the organ that makes gametes. The gonads in males are the testes and the gonads in females are the ovaries. The product, gametes, are haploid germ cells. For example, spermatozoon and egg cells are gametes...
s, which lie close to the pharynx and release the gamete
Gamete
A gamete is a cell that fuses with another cell during fertilization in organisms that reproduce sexually...
s through a small pore near to the gill slits. The female lays a large number of eggs embedded in a gelatinous mass of mucus, which are then externally fertilized
External fertilization
External fertilization is a form of fertilization in which a sperm cell is united with an egg cell external to the bodies of the reproducing individuals. In contrast, internal fertilization takes place inside the female after insemination through copulation....
by the male before water currents break up the mass and disperse the individual eggs.
In most species, the eggs hatch into plankton
Plankton
Plankton are any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification...
ic larvae with elongated bodies covered in cilia. In some species, these develop directly into adults, but in others, there is a free-swimming intermediate stage referred to as a tornaria larva. These are very similar in appearance to the bipinnaria
Bipinnaria
A bipinnaria is the first stage in the larval development of most starfish, and is usually followed by a brachiolaria stage. Movement and feeding is accomplished by the bands of cilia. Starfish that brood their young generally lack a bipinnaria stage, with the eggs developing directly into...
larvae of starfishes, with convoluted bands of cilia running around the body. Since the embryonic development of the blastula
Blastula
The blastula is a hollow sphere of cells formed during an early stage of embryonic development in animals . The blastula is created when the zygote undergoes the cell division process known as cleavage. The blastula is preceded by the morula and is followed by the gastrula in the developmental...
within egg is also very similar to that of echinoderm
Echinoderm
Echinoderms are a phylum of marine animals. Echinoderms are found at every ocean depth, from the intertidal zone to the abyssal zone....
s, this suggests a close phylogenetic link between the two groups.
After a number of days or weeks, a groove begins to form around the larval midsection, with the anterior portion eventually destined to become the proboscis, while the remainder forms the collar and trunk. The larvae eventually settle down and change into tiny adults to take on the burrowing lifestyle. A few species, such as Saccoglossus kowalevskii, lack even the planktonic larval stage, hatching directly as miniature adults.