Clear Concept phylum Rotifera

Clear Concept Rotifera

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Rotifera
(The Wheel Animalcules)

The rotifers are very common and abundant freshwater animals, commonly designated
as the “Wheel animalcules”. Generally speaking, they are the smallest animals
amongst the Metazoa. The transparency of their body reveals the internal organs
clearly; they can be seen functioning in living specimens.

Historical
The inventor of microscope, Leeuwenhoek discovered rotifers in 1703 after the
invention of his microscope. Earlier workers like Linnaeaus, Pallas, Muller and
Lamarck could not distinguish them from Protozoa. Ehrenberg also placed rotifers in
a distinct class of infusoria. The basis of the modern classification of rotifers was laid
by Hudson, Gossae, Harring, Remane and Myers.

Derivation of Name:
The phylum name Roifer is derived from two Latin words (Rota = wheel, ferre = to
bear) and means “wheel bearers”. This makes reference to the crown of cilia around
the mouth of the rotifer. The rapid movement of the cilia in some species makes
them appear to whirl like a wheel.

Definition of Rotifera:
Rotifera are microscopic aquatic animals of the phylum rotifer. Usually they are
unsgemented, bilaterally symmetrical, free living aquatic animals, having a ciliary
apparatus called corona at the anterior end for locomotion and food collection with a
molecular pharynux containing movable jaws, with typical flame bulb nephridia
opening into the cloaca. They are diocious, sexually dimorphic and without
specialized circulatory and reproduction system.

Distinctive characters of Rotifera
1. Mostly microscopic and freshwater aniamls, rarely marine or parasitic.

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2. Body bilaterally symmetrical, unsegmented, triploblastic, non-coelomate,
having 3 parts – head, trunk and tail.
3. Anterior end or head modified into a retractile, variously ciliated trochal disc or
corona for locomotion and food collection.
4. Rotifers are multicelluarl animals with body cavities that are partially lined by
mesoderm.
5. Digestive system, with a modified muscular grinding phyrum or mastax
bearing internal jaws is complete.
6. Special respiratory and circulatory system are absent.
7. Nervous system simple, with a dorsal cerebreal gangion and several nerves (no
cords).
8. Sense organs tuft-like or as eye spots.
9. Sexes separates and sexually dimorphic; males usually smaller than females
and degenerate; females oviparous or viviparous; parthenogenesis or sexual
reproduction development direct without a larva.

Habitat:
Rotifers can be found in many freshwater environments and in moist soil, where they
inhabit the thin films of water that are formed around soil particles. The habitat of
rotifers may include still water environments, such as lake bottoms, as well as flowing
water environments, such as rivers or streams. Rotifers are also commonly found on
mosses and lichens growing on tree trunks and rocks, in rain gutters and puddles, in
soil or leaf litter, on mushrooms growing near dead trees, in tanks of sewage treatment
plants, and even on freshwater crustaceans and aquatic insect larvae.

The Mode of Nutrition of Rotifer:
There are three modes of feeding for rotifera
1) Raptorial method: projection of the trophy from the mouth to grab prey in
forceps action. The food is then brought to the mouth and swallowed.
2) Microphagous method: the corona of cilia (short cellular appendages
specialized for locomotion formed from microtubules) draws a vortex of water
into the mouth, which the rotifer sifts for food .the trophy stuffs prey into the
esophagus and food proceeds to the stomach.

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3) Parasitic: rotifers are rarely ever parasitic ,but specific types live on and their
sustenance from crustan.

Diet of Rotifer:
As rotifers are microscopic animals, their diet must consist of matter small enough to
fit through their tiny mouths during filter feeding. Rotifers are primarily omnivorous,
but some species have been known to be cannibalistic. The diet of rotifers most
commonly consists of dead or decomposing organic materials, bacteria, small
protozoan‟s, as well as unicellular algae and other phytoplankton. Usually their food
are primary producers in aquatic communities. Such feeding habits make some rotifers
primary consumers. Rotifers are in turn prey to carnivorous secondary consumers,
including shrimp and crabs.

Classification:
The phylum rotifers include nearly 2000 species group under 3 orders, as follows:






Characters of Monogonontida:
The largest group is with about 1500 species
1. Swimming or sessile freshwater rotifers
2. Two lateral antennae; toes 0 to 2
3. Mastax most often of grinding type
4. Males degenerate; sexual dimorphism well marked
5. Ovary single, with vitellarium
6. Reproduction heterogenous
Examples: Epiphanes (=Hydatina), Asplanchna, Brachionus, Polyrthra, Notommata,
Pedalia, Synchaeta, Chonochilus.


Rotifers
Monogonontida Seisonoida Bdelloida
Ploimida Flosculariacea Collothecacea
Order 1 Order 2 Order 3

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Characters of Seisonoida:
There are only two known species of Seisonidea, which is usually regarded as the
most “primitive” and in morphological analysis it comes out in a basal position.
1. Epizoic marine rotifers
2. Elongated body with reduced corona
3. Lateral antennae and toes absent
4. Males fully developed, no sexual dimorphism
5. Ovaries two without vitellaria
Example: Seison, commensal on crustaceans.

Characters of Bdelloida:
It includes 350 species
1. Swimming or creeping freshwater rotifers.
2. Conora retractile with two trochal discs.
3. Lateral antennae absent; toes 0 to 4
4. Mastax adapted for grinding.
5. Males absent. Ovaries two, with vitellaria
6. Reporduction parthenogenetic
Example: Philodina, Rotaria, Rotifer, Embata, Adineta.

General morphology
Colouration: Usually they are transparent and colourless. The enclosing cuticle may
impart a slight yellowish colour. The rotifers of Alpine- and polar regions may show
brown, red and orange colours usually localized in their digestive tracts.
Shape and size. The rotifers are small aquatic creatures many of them not larger than
protozoañs. Many species are much smallur than amoeba and may be engulfed by it.
Superficially they resemble the ciliates, with which they were classed by earlier
workers. They range from 0.04 to 3 mm, in length. In spite of their minute size they
are true metazoan with an enteric canal, nephridia, gonads, ganglia and sense organs,
etc. The body is bilaterally symmetrical but extremely variable in shape. It may be
slender and worm-like (Rotaria), broad (Polychaetus), flattened sacciform
(Asplancima), or even spherical (Trochosphaera). More typically it is of elongated
form (Epiphanes), Microscopic in size and of no direct importance to man, these

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abundant animals are little known except to zoologists and amateur microscopists,
who are fascinated by their active movements, bright colours, fantastic shapes and
interesting habits.
External features.
The elongated or saccular body of a typical rotifer is divisible into three regions-an
anterior head, a middle trunk and a posterior foot.
(a) Head: The blunt anterior end of the body is not distinctly delimited as head. It
may be narrow or lobed but it is typically broad and truncate. The head consists
chiefly of a characteristic retractile ciliary crown or disc called the corona

Fig.. Section of the generalized rotifer in lateral view showing internal structure.

Fig. Philodina rosela.

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or trochal disc, with a central unejijated apicalfield. The distribution of crown cilia
varies in different rotjfers. In. some cases (e.g. Epiphanes), the corona is surrounded
by, a double ciliated ring, the velum, made of an outer ciliary band or cinguiwn, and
an inner ciliary band or trochus.. Frequently, certain cilia become modified to form
cirri, membranelles or bristles. In the common type of crown (e.g Philodina), the cilia
are arranged in two lobes or discs. Their cilia beat in a circular manner, one clockwise
and the other anticlockwjse, and look like two wheels spinning, hence the name
„Rotifera‟.
The beating of cilia helps in locomotion, in drawing water currents containing oxygen
and food towards mouth, and in arrying off wastes.
The trochal disc is the most characteristic organ of the rotifers, which have often been
called Trochelminthes (G., trochos, wheel; helminthos, werm).
(b) Trunk: The trunk is .the middle, eloigated region ontainin.g the chief visceral
organs.. It may be cylindrical or ariously flattened and broadened. It is generally
surrounded y a shell-like transparent, flexible, cuticular covering, the lorica, which is
often ornamented or spiny. It is folded into sections that can be telescoped one in the
other when the animal contracts.
(c) Foot: The post-anal or terminal, gradually tapering region of the body forms the
tail or foot. Its cuticle is sometimes ringed. It may be long or short and terminates
either in an adhesive disc or in one to four pointed, movable finger-like projections,
the toes. The foot contains cement or pedal g1cnds, the ducts of which open at the tips
of the to\ The mucilaginous or viscous secretion of these glands serves to anchor the
animal temporarily during feeding or constructs vase-like cases jn,sessile rotifers.
Besides being a clinging organ, the foot also serves for locomotion.
Body wall: It consists cuticle, hypodermis or epidermis and sub-epidermal muscles
The protective noncellular and thin cutide, secreted by the hypoderniis, consists of
scieroproteins. In some species it forms a rigid shell or lorica around the trunk. It may
be variously sculptured or ornamented. . The cuticle may be ringed or annulated to
permit telescoping the body. The hypodermis is a thin syncytium containing a
constant „number of scattered nuclei. Epidermal glands are rare The ducts of a
retrocerebral organ, lying near the brain, open on the apical field; while those of pedal

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glands, located in the foot, open on the tips of the toes. Definite or continuous muscles
are absent. There are several bands of. unstriped muscles passing from lorica to
trochal disc and tail and serving as retractors for ;them.
Pseudocoel: The spacious cavity, between the body wal and the gut, is a pseudocoel
derived from the embryoni blastocoel. It is without an epithelial lining. It is filled with
fluid containing a loose syncytial mass of amoeboid celIi presumably phagocytic and
excretory in nature.

Digestive system:
The food, consisting of Protozoa, othet thinute organisms and organic debris, is swept
by ciliary action into the mouth, situated in the centre or near the ventral ed1 of
corona. The mouth leads, by a short buccal cavity, into n rounded, elliptical or
elongated and highly muscular pharyn or mastax, which is an efficient chewing
apparatus charac. teristic of rotifers alone. It is provided internally with hard chitinous
teeth or jaws, called trophi, projecting into the lumen The trophi consist of seven main
pieces, six paired and one unpaired. In the median line is a forked structure, the incus
consisting of a small, mid-ventral base, calledfukru, bearing two antero dorsal
branches, the rami. On eithór Side of incus lies a hammer-shaped malleus, consisting
of a handle. like manubrium embedded in the muscles, and a toothed cla or uncus. The
posterior pointed end of manubrium is known as cauda. Small pieces called subunci
may be intercalated between unci and rain i
Operated by muscles, the trophi are in constant movement which distinguishes a
living rotifer from other organisms. They are variously used to grasp, cut and grind the
food. They vary in stiape and size, according to feeding habits, in different rotjfers and
are of classiflciory value. They are of malleate, virgate, cardata, forcipate, incubate,
ramate, unináte and fulcrate types. The wall of mastax often contains two to seven
salivary glands
The mastax leads through a short, narrow and dorsal oesophagus into a large, thiók-
walled and sac-like stomach, attached anteriorly to which are a pair of‟ digestive or
gastric

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Fig: Two types of mastax trophi. A-Malleate or grindiog type. B-Forcipate or
grasping type.

glands. The stomach passes through a short, almost straight, intestinse to an oval
cloaca, which opens to outside through the anus or cloacal opening situated mid-
dorsally at the junction of the trunk and foot. Intestine, cloaca and cloacal opening are‟
lacking in pelagic forms, like Asplanchna, Ascomorpha. etc., that suck their prey and
have no indigestible remnants for defaecation. Except pharynx, the digestive tract is
lined by cilia Digestion takes place in the stomach and absorption in the stomach and
intestine. The digested food in solution in the fluid content of the pseudecoel reaches
all the parts of the tiny body.

Excretory system:
It consists of a pair of lateral, convoluted excretory canals or protonephridia, one on
each side of the alimentary canal, giving off irregular tag-like processes ending in two
to eight flame cells. Anteriorly the canals connect by a transverse renal commissure,
called Huxley‟s anastomose, above the mouth. Posteriorly, they open into a common
pulsating vesicle or urinary bladder, which contracts periodically to expel its fluid
contents to the outside through the cloaca. In some freshwater species, the bladder
eliminates a bulk of fluid equal to that of the animal about every 13 minutes. Such a
high rate of discharge is evidence of the osmoregulatory function of the
protonephridia. Water enters through mouth-by swallowing rather than penetration of
the body wall Respiration takes place through the general body surface.

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Nervous system:
The brain consists of a bibbed suprapharyngeal ganglion, situated above the mastax in
head. Various nerves radiate from the brain to various organs and sensory centres of
the body. The great activity of rotifers indicates that the nervous system is well-
coordinated with the musculature.

Reproduction:
Reproduction is sexual. The sexes are separate with a well marked sexual dimorphism.
The reproductive organs are simple.
The males are usually smaller than females and often degenerate, without digestive
organs. They are seldom seen, partly perhaps because of their brief existence and
partly because few are produced. They die after mating. They may be totally absent in
some cases. The greater part of their body cavity contains a large3 sacciform testis,
which opens by a ciliated sperm duct either dorsally in a protrusible penis (cirrus) or
in the foot. One pair to many prostatic glands open into the sperm duct.
The females are most common, numerous and normal individuals. Each contains a
single, bulky syncytial ovary below the stomach, it is divided into a small ovary
proper or germariwn, and a large yolk gland or virellarium, which supplies the eggs
with yolk. A short oviduct leads from. the ovary into the cloaca.
Ecological role of rotifers:
Three important roles of rotefres in society:
1. Feed on algae species
 Can alter dominant algal species in system
 Filtration reds and injection also affects fresh water system .some can filter
1000 times their own body boliom, per hours and some can eat 10 times there
own dry weight per day.
2.serve as important species
 They produce so quickly.
 They have become a rich food source.
 They makes up to 50% of zooplankton.
 They are usually food source of for other rotfers, microcrustaceans, larvae and
fish.
3. Indicate water quality.

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Questions of Rotifer:

1. Define Rotifer? How can you identify Rotifer? 08
2. What are the major ecological roles of Rotifers? 12, 08
3. Write down about Rotifer‟s diet. 11
4. What is wheel animalcule?
5. What are the major organs that can be seen in Rotifer? 04, 05
6. Shortly discuss the world distribution of Rotifers, 04, 05.