Vase Tunicate

• GeneralIts larvae have a notochord, which places it among the closest relatives of the vertebrates.
• It is one of the classic model organisms of developmental biology, and its genome was sequenced in 2002 precisely because of its kinship with us.
• It is one of the very few animals able to synthesise cellulose, with which it builds its outer tunic, an ability almost all other animals have lost.
• It is a chordate, as we are: its larva swims free and has a notochord, a dorsal nerve cord and a tail, the features that define the group. On settling, it reabsorbs the tail and the nervous system and turns into a filter-feeding sac.
• That metamorphosis makes it a key model for understanding the origin of the vertebrates. Its genome was sequenced in 2002 and holds some 16,000 genes, many with a human counterpart but in a single copy.
• It filters water through a perforated pharynx, an organ equivalent to our embryonic gill slits.
• It accumulates vanadium in its tissues at concentrations millions of times higher than in the surrounding water, and what for is still not properly understood.
• It is one of the most troublesome invasive fouling species in the world: it smothers mussel ropes and aquaculture rafts.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - no rigid skeleton (cellulose tunic)

Habitat and environment

Harbours, ships' hulls and shallow hard bottoms

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Ciona intestinalis · Anatomia de Tunicata

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.