• The largest animal phylum- 1 million species of crabs, shrimp, spiders, scorpions, and insects make up this phylum
  • Have jointed appendages; segmented bodies
  • Exoskeletons made of chitin
  • Molt;  have heads with many sensory organs.
  • Bilateral
  • Simple and complex eyes that detect only light intensity and form images
  • Antennae that smell chemical substances in the environment
  • Sexual Reproduction- where sperm is released inside the female’s body, not in water.
  • Larvae of many species develop into very different adults, a process called metamorphosis.
  • Can develop resistance to insecticides- demonstrates how quickly they adapt to a changing environment.
  • Short generations and many offspring increase the chance that random mutations will produce a few resistant individuals
  • Arthropods are segmented animals with jointed appendages and an exoskeleton

Chelicerates

  • Include horseshoe crabs and arachnids, such as spiders, scorpions, mites, and ticks

Millipedes and Centipedes

  • Are identified by the number of jointed legs per body segment
  • Crustaceans

–      Are nearly all aquatic

–      Include crabs, shrimps, and barnacles

  • Insects are the most diverse group of arthropods
  • Insects have a 3 -part body consisting of
  • Head, thorax, and abdomen
  • Three sets of legs
  • Wings (most, but not all insects)
  • Many insects undergo incomplete or complete metamorphosis

A. Order Orthoptera

  • Grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, and locusts
  • B. Order Odonata
  • Dragonflies and damselflies

C. Order Hemiptera

  • Bedbugs, plant bugs, stinkbugs, and water striders
  • D. Order Coleoptera
  • Beetles

E. Order Lepidoptera

  • Moths and butterflies
  • F. Order Diptera
  • Flies, fruit flies, houseflies, gnats, mosquitoes

G. Order Hymenoptera

  • Ants, bees, and wasps

Phylum Echinodermata

  • Sea stars and sea urchins.
  • Reproduce sexually.
  • Sperm and eggs are released in water, where they join and fertilize
  • Movement by seawater into and out of a system of internal tubes.
  • The water vascular system – has suction cup-like tube feet used for respiration and locomotion

Phylum Chordata

  • Vertebrates-fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
  • Full development of organ systems
  • Mostly sexual reproduction
  • 4 defining characteristics:
    • The stiff dorsal rod helps to organize the embryo’s development.
    • The central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) is tubular
    • Their sides have slits just behind the head.  These pharyngeal slits (pharynx means “throat”) become gill slits of adult fish.  In air-breathing chordates, they develop into various organs such as internal parts of the ears
    • They have a tail; in humans, it’s the tailbone, or coccyx, which curls internally.
    • Lampreys are vertebrates that lack hinged jaws and paired fins

CLASS: Fish

  • Jawed vertebrates with gills and paired fins include sharks, ray-finned fishes, and lobe-fins
    • Chondrichthyans
    • Have a flexible skeleton made of cartilage
    • Include sharks and rays
    • Ray-finned Fishes
    • A skeleton reinforced with a hard matrix of calcium phosphate
    • Operculi that move water over the gills
    • A buoyant swim bladder
    • Lobe-fins
    • Have muscular fins supported by bones

CLASS: Amphibians

  • The first tetrapods—vertebrates with 2 pairs of limbs allowing movement on land
  • Include frogs, toads,  and salamanders
  • Most amphibian embryos and larvae must develop in the water

CLASS: Reptiles

  • Amniotes — tetrapods with a terrestrially adapted egg
  • Terrestrial adaptations include
  • Waterproof scales
  • A shelled, amniotic egg
  • Ectothermic

–      Dinosaurs were the most diverse reptiles to inhabit land

  • Largest animals ever to inhabit the land
  • They may have been endothermic, producing their own body heat

CLASS:  Birds

  • Considered feathered reptiles with adaptations for flight
  • Birds thought to have evolved from  small, two-legged dinosaurs called theropods

–      Birds are reptiles that have

  • Wings, feathers, endothermic metabolism, and many other adaptations related to flight such as light bones

CLASS: Mammals

  • Amniotes that have hair, produce milk and are endothermic
    • Hair, which insulates their bodies
    • Mammary glands, which produce milk
    • Monotremes lay eggs
      • The embryos of marsupials and eutherians are nurtured by the placenta within the uterus
      • Marsupial offspring complete development attached to the mother, usually inside a pouch
      • Eutherians- placental mammal complete development before birth
      • The End of Animalia Notes!
      • Kingdom Books were due 4/30!
author avatar
William Anderson (Schoolworkhelper Editorial Team)
William completed his Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts in 2013. He current serves as a lecturer, tutor and freelance writer. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, walking his dog and parasailing. Article last reviewed: 2022 | St. Rosemary Institution © 2010-2024 | Creative Commons 4.0

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