The Ascidiacea (“uh-SID-dee-AY-shee-uh”) class of these invertebrates has grayish-colored signet-ring cells that unusually store vanadium ions in specialized vacuoles. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name this subphylum, some members of which produce a namesake protective coating made of a highly crystalline variety of cellulose. Lancelets and this subphylum are the members of Chordata with no backbones.
ANSWER: Tunicata [or tunicates; accept Urochordata or urochordates]
[10e] Some colonial ascidiaceans form cilia-lined pharyngeal slits that engage in this behavior by pumping water through siphons. A group of whales that survive by this behavior use baleen to strain small prey.
ANSWER: filter feeding [accept suspension feeding; prompt on partial answers; prompt on foraging or scavenging]
[10m] Colonial filter feeders of the Pyrosomatida order are the only tunicates to exhibit this phenomenon. Aequorea victoria jellyfish notably exhibits this phenomenon, which uses coelenterazine (“see-len-TAIR-uh-zeen”) as a cofactor.
ANSWER: luminescence [or word forms; accept bioluminescence or chemiluminescence; accept fluorescence or fluorescent; prompt on glowing; prompt on photoemission or light-emitting]
<AL, Biology>