What is lophophore and its function?

The lophophore is a specialized part of the mesosome, which bears tentacles that are covered with numerous cilia. The lophophore performs several main functions including the collecting of food particles, the brooding of embryos, and respiration.

What is a lophophore in biology?

Definition of lophophore : a circular or horseshoe-shaped organ about the mouth especially of a brachiopod or bryozoan that bears tentacles and functions especially in food-getting.

What are the characteristics of Lophophorates What are some examples of Lophophorates?

The Lophophorates–Characteristics 1. U-shaped circle of tentacles with mouth at center and anus at side 2. U-shaped digestive tract 3. Typically eucoelomate, with a deuterostomate-type of structure with respect to the origin of the coelom B.

What organisms use a lophophore?

invertebrate animals that possess a lophophore, a fan of ciliated tentacles around the mouth. Movements of the cilia create currents of water that carry food particles toward the mouth. The lophophorates include the moss animals (phylum Bryozoa), lamp shells (phylum Brachiopoda), and phoronid worms (phylum Phoronida).

How does a lophophore work?

lophophore An organ characteristic of aquatic invertebrates of the phyla Bryozoa, Phoronida, and Brachiopoda that functions in filter feeding. It consists of a ridge of hollow tentacles bearing cilia, which waft food particles into the mouth.

What is the function of the lophophore in a Brachiopod?

The structure of the brachiopod lophophore is highly variable. The main functions of lophophore are feeding and respiration. Sometimes the lophophore is used as a brooding site for larvae. The larvae of Lingulidae and Discinidae use the lophophore for swimming in the water column.

What is the structure of a lophophore?

The lophophore can most easily be described as a ring of ciliated tentacles surrounding the mouth, but it is often horseshoe-shaped or coiled. Its tentacles are hollow, with extensions of a coelomic space thought to be a mesocoel. The gut is U-shaped with the anterior mouth at the center of the lophophore.

What is the largest group of Lophophorates?

Probably related to ancestry of Bryozoa and Brachiopoda. Phylum Bryozoa (“moss animals”): Largest and most successful lophophorate group. Members quite varied. All are small, aquatic animals living in colonies.

What is the trochophore function?

A trochophore (/ˈtroʊkəˌfɔːr, ˈtrɒ-, -koʊ-/; also spelled trocophore) is a type of free-swimming planktonic marine larva with several bands of cilia. By moving their cilia rapidly, they make a water eddy, to control their movement, and to bring their food closer, to capture it more easily.

What are two functions of the cilia in a trochophore?

The cilia on a trochophore are moved rapidly in order to create a water eddy, thus controlling the direction of their movement. List the main parts in the basic body plan of a mollusk. the four main parts of a mollusk are the head, the foot, the visceral mass and the shell it resides in.

What are the characteristics of a trochophore?

trochophore, also called trochosphere, small, translucent, free-swimming larva characteristic of marine annelids and most groups of mollusks. Trochophores are spherical or pear-shaped and are girdled by a ring of cilia (minute hairlike structures), the prototroch, that enables them to swim.

Which is the best description of a lophophore?

Lophophore is derived from the Greek lophos (crest, tuft) and -phore, -phoros (φορος) (bearing), a derivative of phérein (φέρειν) (to bear); thus crest-bearing. The lophophore can most easily be described as a ring of ciliated tentacles surrounding the mouth, but it is often horseshoe-shaped or coiled.

Is the brachiopod outside the ring of the lophophore?

In the Bryozoa, it is outside the ring of the lophophore. The inarticulate brachiopods do not have an anus. Groups with lophophores are called lophophorates. In the old view of metazoan phylogeny, the lophophorates were placed within the Deuterostomia.

Is the lophophore a ring of ciliated tentacles?

The lophophore can most easily be described as a ring of ciliated tentacles surrounding the mouth, but it is often horseshoe-shaped or coiled. Phoronids have their lophophores in plain view, but the valves of brachiopods must be opened wide to get a good view of their lophophore.

Is the Hyolitha part of the Lophophorata?

The position of the Hyolitha has long been disputed, but as of 2017, it has been assigned to the Lophophorata as finely-preserved specimens in the Burgess Shale can be seen to carry lophophores. Lophophorates did appear paraphyletic, but that is contested.