Hydrozoa Temporal range:
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Siphonophorae | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Cnidaria |
Subphylum: | Medusozoa |
Class: | Hydrozoa Owen, 1843 |
Subclasses and orders[1] | |
Hydrozoa (hydrozoans; from Ancient Greek ὕδωρ (húdōr) 'water' and ζῷον (zôion) 'animal') is a taxonomic class of individually very small, predatory animals, some solitary and some colonial, most of which inhabit saline water. The colonies of the colonial species can be large, and in some cases the specialized individual animals cannot survive outside the colony. A few genera within this class live in freshwater habitats. Hydrozoans are related to jellyfish and corals and belong to the phylum Cnidaria.
Some examples of hydrozoans are the freshwater jelly (Craspedacusta sowerbyi), freshwater polyps (Hydra), Obelia, Portuguese man o' war (Physalia physalis), chondrophores (Porpitidae), and pink-hearted hydroids (Tubularia).