A tunicate is a marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata. It is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords; the subphylum was at one time called Urochordata, the term urochordates is still sometimes used for these animals. They are the only chordates that have lost their myomeric segmentation, with the possible exception of the seriation of the gill slits; some tunicates live as solitary individuals, but others replicate by budding and become colonies, each unit being known as a zooid. They are marine filter feeders with a water-filled, sac-like body structure and two tubular openings, known as siphons, through which they draw in and expel water. During their respiration and feeding, they take in water through the incurrent siphon and expel the filtered water through the excurrent siphon. Most adult tunicates are sessile and permanently attached to rocks or other hard surfaces on the ocean floor. Various species of the subphylum tunicata are known as ascidians, sea squirts, sea pork, sea livers, or sea tulips.

The earliest probable species of tunicate appears in the fossil record in the early Cambrian period. Despite their simple appearance and different adult form, their close relationship to the vertebrates is evidenced by the fact that during their mobile larval stage, they possess a notochord or stiffening rod and resemble a tadpole, their name derives from their unique outer covering or "tunic", formed from proteins and carbohydrates, acts as an exoskeleton. In some species, it is thin and gelatinous, while in others it is thick and stiff. About 2,150 species of tunicate exist in the world's oceans, living in shallow water; the most numerous group is the ascidians. Some are solitary animals leading a sessile existence attached to the seabed, but others are colonial and a few are pelagic; some are supported by a stalk, but most are attached directly to a substrate, which may be a rock, coral, mangrove root, piling, or ship's hull. They are found in a range of solid or translucent colours and may resemble seeds, peaches, barrels, or bottles.

One of the largest is a stalked sea tulip, Pyura pachydermatina, which can grow to be over 1 metre tall. The Tunicata were established by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in 1816. In 1881, Francis Maitland Balfour introduced another name for the same group, "Urochorda", to emphasize the affinity of the group to other chordates. No doubt because of his influence, various authors supported the term, either as such, or as the older "Urochordata", but this usage is invalid because "Tunicata" has precedence, grounds for superseding the name never existed. Accordingly, the current trend is to abandon the name Urochorda or Urochordata in favour of the original Tunicata, the name Tunicata is invariably used in modern scientific works, it is accepted as valid by the World Register of Marine Species but not by the Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Various common names are used for different species. Sea tulips are tunicates with colourful bodies supported on slender stalks. Sea squirts are so named because of their habit of contracting their bodies and squirting out water when disturbed.

Sea liver and sea pork get their names from the resemblance of their dead colonies to pieces of meat. Tunicates are more related to craniates, than to lancelets, hemichordates, Xenoturbella or other invertebrates; the clade consisting of tunicates and vertebrates is called Olfactores. The Tunicata contain 3,051 described species, traditionally divided into these classes: Ascidiacea Thaliacea Appendicularia Members of the Sorberacea were included in Ascidiacea in 2011 as a result of rDNA sequencing studies. Although the traditional classification is provisionally accepted, newer evidence suggests the Ascidiacea are an artificial group of paraphyletic status; the following cladogram is based on the phylogenomic study of colleagues. Undisputed fossils of tunicates are rare; the best known and earliest unequivocally identified species is Shankouclava shankouense from the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan Shale at Shankou village, near Kunming. There is a common bioimmuration, of a possible tunicate found in Upper Ordovician bryozoan skeletons of the upper midwestern United States.

Three enigmatic species were found from the Ediacaran period – Ausia fenestrata from the Nama Group of Namibia, the sac-like Yarnemia acidiformis, one from a second new Ausia-like genus from the Onega Peninsula of northern Russia, Burykhia hunti. Results of a new study have shown possible affinity of these Ediacaran organisms to the ascidians. Ausia and Burykhia lived in shallow coastal waters more than 555 to 548 million years ago, are believed to be the oldest evidence of the chordate lineage of metazoans; the Russian Precambrian fossil Yarnemia is identified as a tunicate only tentatively, because its fossils are nowhere near as well-preserved as those of Ausia and Burykhia, so this identification has been questioned. Fossils of tunicates are rare because their bodies decay soon after death, but in some tunicate families, microscopic spicules are present, which may be preserved as microfossils; these spicules have been found in Jurassic and rocks, but, as few palaeontologists are fami

The discography of Judy Collins, an American singer and songwriter, consists of 28 studio albums, 4 live albums, numerous compilation albums, 4 holiday albums, 14 singles. She has 2 Platinum certified albums, which includes a greatest hits collection, 4 Gold certified albums. 11 of her singles have charted on the Billboard Hot 100, with 5 of them hitting the Top 40, 12 have charted on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, with 11 hitting the Top 40. A Maid of Constant Sorrow Golden Apples of the Sun Judy Collins 3 Judy Collins' Fifth Album In My Life Wildflowers Who Knows Where the Time Goes Whales & Nightingales True Stories and Other Dreams Judith Bread and Roses Hard Times for Lovers Running for My Life Times of Our Lives Home Again Amazing Grace Trust Your Heart The Stars of Christmas Sanity and Grace Fires of Eden Baby's Bedtime Baby's Morningtime Judy Sings Dylan... Just Like a Woman Come Rejoice! A Judy Collins Christmas Shameless Voices Classic Broadway All on a Wintry Night Classic Folk Judy Collins Sings Leonard Cohen: Democracy Portrait of an American Girl Judy Collins Sings Lennon and McCartney Paradise Bohemian Strangers Again Silver Skies Blue, with Ari Hest A Love Letter To Sondheim Everybody Knows, with Stephen Stills Winter Stories, with Jonas Fjeld The Judy Collins Concert Living Live at Newport Christmas at the Biltmore Estate Judy Collins Live at Wolf Trap Live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Live in Ireland Recollections Colors of the Day Amazing Grace: the Best of Judy Collins So Early in the Spring...

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Hinzelmann or Heinzelmann was a kobold in the mythology of northern Germany. He was described as a household spirit of ambivalent nature, similar to Puck. Like Puck, he would provide good luck and perform household tasks, but would become malicious if not appeased. Heinzelmann's myth says that he started haunting the castle Hudemühlen in 1584 after being cast from the forest of Bohemia. At first he was shy he was conversing and jesting with all inhabitants of the house, including the master, he sang verses, the most repeated one said that evil luck would take his place if he was chased out. Heinzelmann took the form of a congenial child in red velvet. In one tale he showed his true form to a maid; some local lore dating back generations puts the Heinzelman in the role of elves, leaving trinkets or candies in the shoes of well-behaved children, when said shoes are left by the door in the days leading up to Christmas. Hinzelmann is an important character in the novel American Gods by Neil Gaiman, in which he protects Lakeside, a fictional town in Wisconsin from economic trouble in return for the town's children as sacrifices.

His fictional history describes him as being a god to a tribe of nomads living in the Black Forest before its invasion by the Romans. Heinzelmännchen Lilian Gask. "Chapter IX: The Little White Feather."". The Fairies and the Christmas Child. London: Harrap & Co. n.d. pp. 175–196. Thomas Keightley, The fairy mythology, Volume 2, W. H. Ainsworth