Macrostomum lignano
| Macrostomum lignano | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Platyhelminthes |
| Class: | Turbellaria |
| Order: | Macrostomida |
| Family: | Macrostomidae |
| Genus: | Macrostomum |
| Species: | M. lignano |
| Binomial name | |
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Macrostomum lignano Ladurner, Schärer, Salvenmoser, & Rieger, 2005 |
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Macrostomum lignano is a , hermaphroditic flatworm. It is transparent and of small size (adults reaching about 1.7 mm), and is part of the intertidal sand meiofauna of the Adriatic Sea. Originally a model organism for research on developmental biology and the evolution of the bilaterian body plan, it has since expanded to other important fields of research such as sexual selection and sexual conflicts,ageing and the evolution of the bilaterian body plan,ecotoxicology, and, more recently, genomics.
The genus name "Macrostomum", meaning "big-mouthed", derives from the Greek μάκρος makros, "large", and στόμα, stoma, mouth. The species name, lignano, comes from the location where this species has so far been found, the sandy beaches and lagoons at and near Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy.
Macrostomum lignano, like all other flatworms, is an unsegmented, soft-bodied bilaterian without body cavity, and no specialized circulatory or respiratory organs. Unlike many other flatworms, its body is not flattened but round in cross section, the diffusion of oxygen and nutrients to the different body parts being possible due to its small size (adults reach about 1.7 mm in length)
Macrostomum lignano is a simultaneous hermaphrodite. Adults (about 12 days after hatching, at 20°C and ad libitum food) have a pair of ovaries and a pair of testes, and simultaneously produce gametes in both sex functions. Reproduction is by outcrossing, with worms mating reciprocally.
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