Cnidarians
. Cnidarians, also known as coelenterates, diverse group of aquatic, invertebrate animals armed with microscopic stinging structures. Cnidarians make up the phylum Cnidaria, which encompasses more than 9,000 species, including corals , hydras , jellyfishes , Portuguese man-of-war , and sea anemones . Cnidarians live in all oceans, and a few species inhabit fresh water. Cnidarians have many shapes and they range in size from microscopic hydrozoans to jellyfishes that are 2 m (7 ft) in diameter with tentacles 30 m (100 ft) long. Although they have various physical characteristics, all cnidarians exhibit radial symmetry—that is, similar body parts radiate from a central mouth. Six to ten tentacles surround a cnidarian’s mouth to aid in the capture and ingestion of the animals they feed on. Cnidarians have a saclike body with a single mouth opening. The body wall is composed of two sheets of cells—an inner layer (the endoderm) and an outer layer (the ectoderm). A gelatinous mesoglea layer ...