Pelagic Tunicates of the Southern Ocean

Published: 1999-10-07

This dataset is a scanned copy of ANARE Research Notes 8 which describes the Pelagic Tunicates of the Southern Ocean. It lists all the known Southern Ocean species and with illustrated diagrams provides a guide to their taxonomic identification. Taken from the abstract: The characteristics of the Classes, Orders, Families and Genera of the pelagic tunicates found in the Southern Ocean and adjacent waters are given together with keys for their identification. In the Southern Ocean 5 species of salps (Order Desmomyaria), 1 species of doliolid (Order Cyclomyaria) and 27 species, forms, and types of larvaceans (Order Appendicularia) have been found. The synonymy, diagnostic characteristics, geographical and bathymetric distribution of each of these is given together with an illustration and a distribution map. The subphylum Tunicata (syn. Urochordata) is defined as chordata without coelom, segmentation, or bony tissue, with dorsal atrium in the adult; notochord restricted to the tail which is present in the larval organisation only; and a test, usually largely composed of a substance (tunicin) related to cellulose. The tunicata is represented in the plankton by the classes Thaliacea (containing the orders Desmomyaria, Cyclomyaria and Pyrosomida) and Appendiculariae (syn. Larvacea). The free-swimming larvae (commonly known as tadpole larvae) of the Class Asidiacea are also found in the plankton but will not be dealt with here. The document is available for download as a pdf from the provided URL.