Types of Cnidarians
Scientists divide cnidarians into four classes: Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa, Cubozoa, and Anthozoa. They base this division partly on whether the polyp or medusa is more conspicuous during an animal’s life cycle. Hydrozoa In Hydrozoa, the polyp phase dominates in the animal’s life cycle. Most hydrozoan polyps reproduce by budding to form a polyp colony that fastens to solid objects such as rocks and pilings. Some hydrozoan polyps also bud to form a medusa, which is generally small and lives only a short time. This class comprises about 3,100 species, including the freshwater hydra (which lacks a medusa stage), the Portuguese man-of-war, and fire coral. Scyphozoa The medusa phase dominates in most of the 200 species of scyphozoans, the cnidarians most frequently referred to as jellyfish. Scyphozoan medusae are larger and have a more complicated structure than the short-lived medusae of the hydrozoans. Scyphozoan medusae live several months or more, reproducing sexually to form small, inconspicu...