Calanoida
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Calanoida is an order of copepods, a kind of zooplankton. They include 43 families with about 2000 species of both marine and freshwater copepods [2]. Calanoid copepods are important in many food webs, taking in energy from phytoplankton and algae and 'repackaging' it for consumption by higher trophic level predators like birds, fishes and mammals. Many commercial fishes are dependent on calanoid copepods for diet in either their larval or adult forms. Baleen whales such as the bowhead whale eat copepods of the genera Calanus and Neocalanus, as do planktivorous seabirds like Crested Auklets, Least Auklets and Dovekies.
Calanoids can be distinguished from other planktonic copepods by having first antennae at least half the length of the body and biramous second antennae. Their key defining feature anatomically, however, is the presence of a joint between the fifth and sixth body segments.[3]
[edit] Classification
Calanoida contains the following families, and the genus Microdisseta, incertae sedis.
[edit] References
- ^ J. W. Martin & G. E. Davis (2001) (PDF). An Updated Classification of the Recent Crustacea. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. p. 132 pp. http://www.nhm.org/research/publications/CrustaceaClassification.pdf.
- ^ D. Boltovskoy, M. J. Gibbons, L. Hutchings & D. Binet (1999). "General biological features of the South Atlantic". in D. Boltovskoy. Zooplankton of the South Atlantic. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden.
- ^ Barnes, Robert D. (1982). Invertebrate Zoology. Philadephia, PA: Holt-Saunders International. p. 692. ISBN 0-03-056747-5.
