English: Mud dragons.
Name: from the Greek kine, move and rhynchos, snout.
Clades:
Scalidophora;
Ecdysozoa;
Animals.
Members: 150.
KinorhynchaAnimal; small, 1 mm or less; pseudocoelomate invertebrates.
Habitat: marine, in mud or sand at all depths as part of the meiobenthos.
Body: segmented, with a head, neck, and a trunk of eleven segments; lack of external cilia; spines along the body.
Motion: seven circles of spines around the head, used for locomotion, withdrawing the head and pushing forward, then holding with the spines while drawing up the body.
Spines: are part of a cuticle secreted by the epidermis; this is molted several times while growing to adulthood.
Head: completely retractable, and is covered by a set of neck plates called placids when retracted.
Food: diatoms and other things found in the mud.
Sexes: 2, that look alike, and the larvae are free-living, but little else is known of their reproductive process.