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What other types of tunicates are there?

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There are two other classes of tunicates, both consisting of small planktonic animals. The salps (Thaliacea) metamorphose into barrel-shaped adults that swim by muscular contractions. The larvaceans (Larvacea) are neotenous, that is, they achieve sexual maturity and reproduce without losing the larval form. Many zoologists believe that tunicates of the sea squirt type were the first chordates and that the larval tail, with its notochord and nerve chord, was evolved as a means of dispersing their larvae. According to this theory, the later chordates, including the vertebrates, are descended from neotenous tunicates that, like the larvaceans, failed to assume the adult form.

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