A planula is the free-swimming, flattened, ciliated

Cilium

A cilium is an organelle found in eukaryotic cells. Cilia are slender protuberances that project from the much larger cell body....

, bilaterally symmetric larval form

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

 of various cnidaria

Cnidaria

Cnidaria is a phylum containing over 9,000 species of animals found exclusively in aquatic and mostly marine environments. Their distinguishing feature is cnidocytes, specialized cells that they use mainly for capturing prey. Their bodies consist of mesoglea, a non-living jelly-like substance,...

n species. The planula forms from the fertilized egg of a medusa

Medusa (biology)

In biology, a medusa is a form of cnidarian in which the body is shaped like an umbrella, in contrast with polyps. Medusae vary from bell-shaped to the shape of a thin disk, scarcely convex above and only slightly concave below...

, as the case in scyphozoa

Scyphozoa

Scyphozoa is a class within the phylum Cnidaria, sometimes referred to as the "true jellyfish".The class name Scyphozoa comes from the Greek word skyphos , denoting a kind of drinking cup and alluding to the cup shape of the organism....

ns and some hydrozoa

Hydrozoa

Hydrozoa are a taxonomic class of very small, predatory animals which can be solitary or colonial and which mostly live in saltwater. A few genera within this class live in freshwater...

ns, or from a polyp

Polyp

A polyp in zoology is one of two forms found in the phylum Cnidaria, the other being the medusa. Polyps are approximately cylindrical in shape and elongated at the axis of the body...

, as in the case of anthozoa

Anthozoa

Anthozoa is a class within the phylum Cnidaria that contains the sea anemones and corals. Unlike other cnidarians, anthozoans do not have a medusa stage in their development. Instead, they release sperm and eggs that form a planula, which attaches to some substrate on which the cnidarian grows...

ns. Depending on the species, the planula either metamorphoses directly into a free-swimming, miniature version of the adult form (such as many open-ocean scyphozoans), or navigates through the water until it reaches a hard substrate (many may prefer specific substrates) where it anchors and grows into a polyp (including all anthozoans with a planula stage, many coastal scyphozoans, and some hydrozoans).