Image from An Image-Based Key To The Zooplankton Of North America.

The Phylum Rotifera is noteworthy for being a predominately freshwater taxon, with fewer than 5% of species reported from marine habitats. More than c. 1950 freshwater species are known worldwide, more than 900 are found in the inland waters of North America (Segers, 2008).

Like nematodes, gastrotrichs, etc., rotifers were traditionally classified as “pseudocoelomates.” That group is not monophyletic, but the word remains a perfectly good adjective. Like the others, members of the Rotifera are very small (μm-mm). They are found in the plankton and benthos. Many species reproduce both sexually and asexually, and some species are strictly asexual.

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Bibliography

• Zhang, Z.-Q. 2011. Animal biodiversity: An introduction to higher-level classification and taxonomic richness. Zootaxa 3148: 7-12. [Available online]
• Segers, H. 2011. Phylum Rotifera Cuvier, 1817. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness. Zootaxa 3148: 231–233. [Available online]
• Wallace, R.L. & T.W. Snell. 2010. Rotifera. [in] J.H. Thorp & A.P. Covich (eds.). Ecology and Classification of North American Freshwater Invertebrates, 3rd edition: 173-235.
• Segers, H. 2008. Global diversity of rotifers (Rotifera) in freshwater. Hydrobiologia 595: 49-59. [Available online]
• Segers, H. 2007. Annotated checklist of the rotifers (Phylum Rotifera), with notes on nomenclature, taxonomy and distribution. Zootaxa 1564. 104 pp. [Available online]
• Brusca, R.C. & G.J. Brusca. 2003. Invertebrates, 2nd edition. Sinauer Associates, Inc., Sunderland, Massachusetts. 936 pp.
• Wallace, R.L. 2002. Rotifers: Exquisite Metazoans. Integrative and Comparative Biology 42: 660-667. [Available online]
• Smith, D.G. 2001. Rotifera (Wheel animals). Pennak's Freshwater Invertebrates of the United States, 4th edition: 129-190.
• Underhill, J.C., W.D. Schmid & D.E. Gilbertson. 1982. Taxonomic Keys to the Common Animals of the North Central States, exclusive of the parasitic worms, terrestrial insects, and birds, 4th edition. 205 pp.
• Edmondson, W.T. 1959. Rotifera. [in] W.T. Edmondson (ed.). Ward & Whipple Fresh-Water Biology, 2nd edition: 420-494.
• Myers, F.J. 1930. The Rotifer Fauna of Wisconsin. V. The genera Euchlanis and Monommata. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts & Letters 25: 23-353. [Available online]
• Harring, H.K. & F.J. Myers. 1928. The rotifer fauna of Wisconsin. IV. The Dicranophorinae. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters 23: 667-808. [Available online]
• Harring, H.K. & F.J. Myers. 1926. The rotifer fauna of Wisconsin. III. A revision of the genera Lecane and Monostyla. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters 22: 315-423. [Available online]
• Harring, H.K. & F.J. Myers. 1924. The rotifer fauna of Wisconsin. II. A revision of the notommatid rotifers, exclusive of the Dicranophorinae. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters 21: 415-529. [Available online]
• Harring, H.K. & F.J. Myers. 1922. The rotifer fauna of Wisconsin. Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters 20: 553-662.

Student Essays

• "Rotifers need to eat too!" by AJ Leiden (BIOL/WATR 361, Spring 2015 )
• "Survival by Desiccation in Bdelloid Rotifers" by Ben Jeffery (BIOL/WATR 361, Fall 2013 )

Web Pages

• A Wisconsin Bestiary
• Animal Diversity Web
• Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment
• Integrated Taxonomic Information System
• Rotifer World Catalog
• Systema Naturae 2000
• Tree of Life
• UCBM Introduction to the Rotifera
• WikiSpecies
• Wikipedia
• World Register of Marine Species
• Zooplankton of the Great Lakes