Robert Lee Wallace, Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin, USA
Published online: April 2001
DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0001588
Rotifera are minute, bilaterally symmetrical, unsegmented animals that live predominantly in freshwaters. The phylum name (Latin, rota, wheel; ferre, to bear) was first used by Cuvier in 1798; this refers to the anterior end which, in many species, resembles a rotating wheel due to the sequential beat of its cilia.
Keywords: anhydrobiosis; corona; diapause; intracytoplasmic lamina; pseudocoelom; parthenogenesis; resting egg; trophi; syncytium
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Figure 1. Anatomy of a generalized rotifer. (Reproduced with permission from: Barnes RSK, Calow P and Olive PJW (1993) The Invertebrates: a New Synthesis, 2nd edn. London: Blackwell Scientific Publications.)
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Figure 2. Brachionus, an abundant, freshwater monogonont rotifer. Bar, 100 µm.
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Figure 3. Limnias, a common, freshwater, sessile rotifer of class Monogononta. Bar, 100 µm.
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Figure 4. Collotheca, a sessile rotifer lacking the typical ciliated corona of rotifers. Bar, 100 µm.
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Figure 5. Macrotrachella, bdelloid rotifer. (Reproduced with the kind permission of Giulio Melone, University of Milan.) Bar, 100 µm.
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Figure 6. Sinantherina, a colonial rotifer. Bar, 100 µm.
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| Further Reading | |
| book Clément P and Wurdak E (1991) "Rotifera". In: Harrison FW and Ruppert EE (eds) Microscopic Anatomy of Invertebrates, vol. 4, pp. 219–297. New York: Wiley-Liss. | |
| book Edmondson WT (1959) "Rotifera". In: Edmondson WT (ed.) Fresh-water Biology, 2nd edn. pp. 420–494. New York: Wiley. | |
| Lubzens E (1987) Raising rotifers for use in aquaculture. Hydrobiologia 147: 245–255. | |
| book Nogrady T (1982) "Rotifera". In: Parker SP (ed.) Synopsis and classification of living organisms, pp. 865–872. New York: McGraw-Hill. | |
| book Nogrady T, Wallace RL and Snell TW (1993) Rotifera, vol. 1: Biology, Ecology and Systematics. Guides to the Identification of the Microinvertebrates of the Continental Waters of the World (Dumont HJ, ed.). The Hague: SPB Academic Publishers bv. | |
| book Pontin RM (1978) A Key to British Freshwater Planktonic Rotifera. Cumbria: Freshwater Biological Association Scientific Publication No. 38. | |
| Ricci C (1987) Ecology of bdelloids: how to be successful. Hydrobiologia 147: 117–127. | |
| book Ruppert EE (1991) "Introduction to the aschelminth phyla: a consideration of mesoderm, body cavities, and cuticle". In: Harrison FW and Ruppert EE (eds) Microscopic Anatomy of Invertebrates, vol. 4, pp. 1–17. New York: Wiley-Liss. | |
| Ruttner-Kolisko A (1974) Planktonic rotifers biology and taxonomy. Die Binnengewässer 26 (Supplement): 1–146. | |
| book Wallace RL (1999) "Phylum Rotifera". In: Knobil E and Neill JD (eds) Encyclopedia of Reproduction, vol. 4, pp. 118–129. San Diego: Academic Press. | |
| book Wallace RL and Snell TW (1991) "Rotifera". In: Thorp J and Covich A (eds) Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates, pp. 187–248. New York: Academic Press | |
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