Loricifera is a small phylum of marine sediment-dwelling animals with about a dozen known species. The phylum was discovered in 1983 by Reinhardt Kristensen. The animals have a head, mouth and digestive system as well as a set of specialized umbrella skeleton like scales at each end that are used to move the animals. There is no circulatory system and no endocrine system. The body cavity is a pseudocoelom with a mouth and an anus. The animals are bisexual and probably oviparous. They have no fossil record.
Their closest relatives are presumably the Kinorhyncha and Priapulida with which they constitute the taxon scalidophora. Interestingly stem scalidophorans are now presumably known as fossil embryos - the two known species have been placed in the genus Markuelia.
