Description

Almost everything you wanted to know about appendicularians but were
afraid to ask is discussed in this book or in the references herein. These
diaphanous creatures are common in all the world's oceans but most people
would not recognize them nor understand their roles in marine food webs.
Although these free swimming tunicates are the most primitive chordates,
having the smallest chordate genome known, they developed one of the
most complex external food concentrating mucous structure and using
tangential filtration they feed efficiently on sub-micron and micron sized
particles. The nearly 70 known structure and using tangential filtration
they feed efficiently on submicron and
micron sized particles. The nearly 70
known species are adapted to all the
oceanic environments including the deep
sea and make a significant contribution
to what is called marine snow: slowly
sedimenting marine particles and
thus to the carbon cycling. Chapter
after chapter reviews the latest findings
in the fields of phylogenetics,
diversity, reproduction, nutritional
biology, population dynamics, carbon
flux and predator-prey relationships.