name: Tunicate
flavor_db_name_variants: tunicate
source: foodb
status: draft
food_db_id: Tunicate
id: 421
name_scientific: Tunicata
description: Tunicates, previously known as Urochordata or urochordates, are members of the Tunicata, a subphylum of the phylum Chordata. They are marine filter feeders with a saclike morphology. In their respiration and feeding they take in water through an incurrent (or inhalant) siphon and expel the filtered water through an excurrent (or exhalant) siphon. Most adult tunicates are sessile and attached to rocks or similarly suitable surfaces on the ocean floor; others such as salps, doliolids and pyrosomes swim in the pelagic zone as adults. Various species are commonly known as sea squirts or sea pork. The Tunicata apparently evolved in the early Cambrian period. Despite their simple appearance, they are a sister subphylum to the Vertebrata.
itis_id: 203347
wikipedia_id: Tunicate
picture_file_name: 428.jpg
picture_content_type: image/jpeg
picture_file_size: 81801
picture_updated_at: 2012-04-20T09:40:31.000Z
legacy_id: 455
food_group: Aquatic foods
food_subgroup: Other aquatic foods
food_type: Type 1
created_at: 2011-02-09T00:37:41.000Z
updated_at: 2019-05-14T18:05:24.000Z
creator_id: null
updater_id: null
export_to_afcdb: false
category: specific
ncbi_taxonomy_id: 7712
export_to_foodb: true
public_id: FOOD00421