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Science 8 July 1983:
Vol. 221. no. 4606, pp. 157 - 159
DOI: 10.1126/science.221.4606.157
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Articles

Chitin in Sea Anemone Shells

DAPHNE FAUTIN DUNN 1 and MARTIN H. LIBERMAN 2

1 Department of Invertebrate Biology and Paleontology, California Academy of Sciences, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco 94118
2 Laboratory Division, U.S. Customs Service, 630 Sansome Street, San Francisco, California 94111

Chitin, which is widely distributed among life forms, is well documented in the coelenterate class Hydrozoa and is contained in one member of class Scyphozoa. In class Anthozoa, hard corals synthesize it but soft corals do not. Chitin was identified by infrared spectrophotometry in the trochoid shell of the actinian Stylobates. It constitutes 1.7 percent of the shell by weight, the rest probably being protein. The ability of sea anemones to synthesize chitin is there by confirmed.

Submitted on October 20, 1982
Revised on March 14, 1983

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)