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''Symbion'' is the name of a genus of aquatic animals, less than ½ mm wide, found living attached to the bodies of cold-water lobsters. They have sac-like bodies, and three distinctly different forms in different parts of their two-stage life-cycle. They appear so different from other animals that they were assigned their own, new phylum Cycliophora shortly after they were discovered in 1995. This was the first new phylum of multicelled organism to be discovered since the Loricifera in 1983. ==Taxonomy== ''Symbion'' was discovered in 1995 by Reinhardt Kristensen and Peter Funch on the mouthparts of the Norway lobster (''Nephrops norvegicus''), and other, related, species have since been discovered on: * the American lobster (''Homarus americanus'', host to ''Symbion americanus'') * the European lobster (''Homarus gammarus'', host to an as yet unnamed species of ''Symbion'') The genus is so named because of its commensal relationship with the lobster (a form of symbiosis) – it feeds on the leftovers from the lobster's own meals. The genus ''Symbion'' are peculiar microscopic animals, with no obvious close relatives, and which was therefore given its own phylum, called Cycliophora. The phylogenetic position of ''Symbion'' remains unclear: originally the phyla Ectoprocta and Entoprocta were considered possible relatives of ''Symbion'', based on structural similarities. However, genetic studies suggest that ''Symbion'' may be more closely related to Gnathifera. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Symbion」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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