Almost everything you wanted to know about appendicularians but were

afraid to ask is discussed in this book or in the references herein. These

diaphanous creatures are common in all the world's oceans but most people

would not recognize them nor understand their roles in marine food webs.

Although these free swimming tunicates are the most primitive chordates,

having the smallest chordate genome known, they developed one of the

most complex external food concentrating mucous structure and using

tangential filtration they feed efficiently on sub-micron and micron sized

particles. The nearly 70 known structure and using tangential filtration

they feed efficiently on submicron and

micron sized particles. The nearly 70

known species are adapted to all the

oceanic environments including the deep

sea and make a significant contribution

to what is called marine snow: slowly

sedimenting marine particles and

thus to the carbon cycling. Chapter

after chapter reviews the latest findings

in the fields of phylogenetics,

diversity, reproduction, nutritional

biology, population dynamics, carbon

flux and predator-prey relationships.