Carpolantaia

Carpolantaia

The standard representative of this group is the Carpolanta, a floating, swimming, gelatinous filter-feeder akin to a jellyfish, salp, and sea squirt.

General traits of this group include eight fins and one tail, large mouths, high fecundity, asexual reproduction combined with sexual reproduction (generally spawning), tiny, filter-feeding larvae, four reproductive organs, ribbed stomachs/digestive systems, watery to gelatinous bodies, bodies with some level of translucency, and body lights. Many also have very primitive, jellyfish-like nervous systems.

However, some members' life stages and physiology are altered from this: the Cupotesta, for example, has no tail, while the Vinacrawler is an exclusively benthic, bilateral, opaque filter-feeder with no lights and the beginnings of cephalization.