Add to favourites Mathematician, computer science expert and animal rights advocate Brian Tomasik estimates the total number of individual animals on the earth to be approximately 20,000,121,091,000,000,000. That is, 20 quintillion, or 20 billion billion! In terms of animal species, while estimated vary widely, there are an estimated 1 to 2 million animal species on Earth.
WHAT WILL YOU LEARN?
There are literally millions of species on organisms classified as animals. This means they sit under the kingdom ‘Animalia’. The next level of grouping is called Phylum or Phyla for plural. There are approximately 36 different phyla under the animal kingdom.
We can also break all animals into two main groups called vertebrates and invertebrates. This is important to know, since asking this question could quickly help you identify an animal.
Invertebrates have no internal skeleton. They may have their skeleton on the outside (exoskeleton), like a carb and beetles or have no skeleton at all, like a slug. Invertebrates make up more than 96% of all animals on Earth. The following animals below are examples of invertebrates.
There are 9 main phyla of invertebrates you should know. These are listed below. Select each image for more information on the characteristics of the organisms in each phyla.
Vertebrates have internal skeletons (endoskeleton). Humans, cats, dogs, dolphins, fish and whales are all examples of vertebrates. These animals fit into the phylum Chordata.
Chordata contain all the animals that are vertebrates (like you and me). That’s not hard considering 96% of animals are invertebrates. However, Chordata, doesn’t only include vertebrates, it also includes some invertebrates like Sea squirts.
Sea squirts undergo many physical changes as they become an adult. One of these is they digest their own cerebral ganglion. This controls their movement and is the equivalent of the human brain.
KEY POINTS
Vertebrates are animals with endoskeletons,
Invertebrates are animals with exoskeletons.
A Phyla is the next level of grouping after Kingdom. Organisms in a Phyla are similar than those in a Kingdom.
Anthropods, Proiferans, Echinodermata, Nematoes and Mollusca are examples of Phyla. These phyla only include invertebrates.
WHERE NEXT?
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