Thaliacea (salps, doliolids, fire rollers)
Life > Eukaryotes > Opisthokonta > Metazoa
(animals) >
Bilateria > Deuterostomia >
Chordata > Tunicata
Five families, 25 genera and 79 species worldwide,
with three families, 20 genera and 52 species that that have broad
distributions that include southern African seas. There are no
endemic species in the region.
Classification
Global figures are from
World Register of Marine
Species (WoRMS).
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Order: Doliolida Most of the
eight genera and 25 species in this order fall into the family Doliolidae with only
two genera and four
species in the other two families Doliopsoididae and Paradoliopsidae. The
Doliolidae is the only family represented in southern Africa. |
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Family: Doliolidae
(doliolids)
Six genera and 21 species worldwide,
with four genera and 12 species that that have broad
distributions that include southern African seas. There are no
endemic species in the region. |
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Order: Pyrosomatida One
family. |
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Family: Pyrosomatidae
(pyrosomes, fire rollers)
Three genera and eight species worldwide,
with all genera and seven species with broad
distributions that include southern African seas. There are no
endemic species in the region. |
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Order: Salpida One family. |
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Family: Salpidae (salps) Fourteen genera and 46 species worldwide,
with 13 genera and 33 species with broad
distributions that include southern African seas. There are no
endemic species in the region. |
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Publications (by date)
- Sewell SRB. 1953. The pelagic tunicates. Juhn Murray
Expedition 1933-34, Scientific Rep. Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist.
10:90p. [salp swarms off South Africa]
- Van Zyl, R. P. 1960. A preliminary study of the salps and
doliolids off the west and south coasts of South Africa.
Investigational Rept. Div. Fisheries, Union of South Africa.
v.40, 31p.
- De Decker A. 1973. Agulhas Bank plankton. p.189-219. In B.
Zeitschel (ed.) The Biology of the Indian Ocean. Springer,
Berlin. [salp swarm dynamics]
- Lazarus, B. I. and D. Dowler. 1979. Pelagic tunicata off the
west and south-west coasts of South Africa, 1964-1965. Fish.
Bull. S. Afr. 12:93-119.
- Govindarajan AF, Bucklin A, Madin LP. 2010. A molecular
phylogeny of the Thaliacea. Journal of Plankton Research 33(6):
843-853. doi: 10.1093/plankt/fbq157
- Deibel D., and Lowen B. 2011. A review of the life cycles
and life-history adaptations of pelagic tunicates to
environmental conditions. – ICES Journal of Marine Science,
doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsr159.
Text by Hamish Robertson |
