| Featured Phyla |
| Uniramia insects, millipedes, centipedes |
| Platyhelminthes flatworms, flukes, tapeworms |
| Mollusca snails, slugs, squid, octopus, clams, ship worms |
| Annelida worms, earthworms, leeches |
| Chelicerata spiders, harvestmen, mites, ticks, scorpions, horseshoe crabs |
| Echinodermata star fish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, brittle stars, sea biscuits |
| Cnidaria,
jellyfish, medusae, corals, anemones, sea fans, sea pens |
| Chaetognatha Arrow worms |
| Pentastomida tongue worms |
| Onychophora velvet worms |
| Tardigrada water bears |
| Nematoda round worms, hook worms |
| Crustacea crabs, shrimps, barnacles, water fleas, cyclops, woodlice |
| Nemertea ribbon worms |
| Chordata sea squirts, vertebrates |
| Nematomorpha hair worms |
| Porifera sponges |
| Ctenophora comb jellies & sea gooseberries |
| Pogonophora |
| Hemichordata |
| Brachiopoda lamp shells |
| Echiura spoon worms |
| Sipuncula peanut worms |
| Bryozoa moss animals, polyzoa, ectoprocts |
| Phoronida |
| Priapulida |
| Loricifera |
| Entoprocta |
| Acanthocephala spiny-headed worms |
| Kinorhyncha |
| Gastrotricha |
| Rotifera |
| Mesozoa |
| Gnathostomulida, jaw worms |
| Placozoa |
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Invertebrates make up 99% of animal life on Earth. On this site you will find
descriptions and images of the various invertebrate phyla; just click on one of the top ten below, or the Animal Kingdom tab above, or the list on the left. Or if you are not sure where to look try the Google search at the top right.
The invertebrates are the little things
that run our world. Because of our great size we tend not to notice them,
but they were here long before us, and will be here long after we are gone (see my rant at the bottom of the page). And
it would do our egos good to remember that without them we would soon die, but
if all of us vanished tomorrow they would hardly notice.
In the average patch of
Amazonian rainforest 93% of the dry weight of animal tissue is invertebrate according to Edward O. Wilson, the Harvard ecologist and ant expert.
A hectare of good
quality soil has about 1000 kg each of earthworms and arthropods (uniramia, chelicerata)
according to David Pimentel of Cornell University.
On the left the choanocytes of sponges. |
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January 2010 top ten pages |
| 1 |
Porifera (sponges). On this page you will find drawings of the various cells (see the drawing of choanocytes above), characteristics of the different classes, and photographs of some species. |
| 2 |
Compare and contrast. This page contains answers to some of the most common questions that come up in biology. |
| 3 |
Homework answers. Definitions, brief notes, lists, essays. |
| 4 |
Crustacea. Crabs, shrimps, barnacles, water fleas, woodlice, etc. |
| 5 |
Hexapoda. The entry page to the insect pages. This pages contains general information and diagrams on the insect body - wings, legs antennae (see the drawing below of the different shapes of antennae) etc., as well as links to more detailed pages. |
| 6 |
Platyhelminthes. The flatworms, flukes and tapeworms (see the head of a tapeworm below) - find out what's living inside of you! |
| 7 |
Cephalopoda. Octopus, squid, nautilus - drawings (see the cephalopod eye below), photographs and text. |
| 8 |
Animalia. An overview of the animal kingdom with diagrams (see below) , tables, etc. |
| 9 |
Nematoda. Round worms, hook worms etc. Drawings and photographs and information about which of these parasites might be living in you (see the female hook worm at the bottom of the page), your pet, whales, and even in insects - nematodes are everywhere! |
| 10 |
Cnidaria. Jelly fish, coral, sea fans, sea pens, medusae and anemones. |
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Above a diagram showing the major division of the animal kingdom, and below the eye of a cephalopod.
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Above, just some of the many types of insect antennae
Global warming and pollution caused by us are having a real effect on the Earth. Species are going extinct in numbers higher than the normal background rate. However what is all this compared to Earth's past history which is measured in millions of years, while our recorded history is just a few thousand years, and as a species just a few hundred thousand years?
We are destroying the Earth as we know it, but we are not destroying the Earth. Nothing in human power can come close to the catastrophes the Earth has weathered in the past. Neither atomic bombs nor global warming at its worst will be as severe as the mass extinctions caused by the meteor impact in the late Cretaceous. This impact wiped out half the marine species it is estimated, as well as leading to the demise of the dinosaurs. Yet the earth recovered, and the small, hairy mammalian afterthought that was our ancestor prospered. Even this was as nothing to the huge catastrophe in the Permian, which is estimated to have caused the extinction of 95% of species. And the Earth went on and life continued, and species evolved.
So when we moan and groan about global warming and pollution it is OUR world we want to save. OUR species, OUR furry, feathery animals. The trees and plants WE like to look at and, smell and eat. And if we fail? Well many of them will go extinct along with us, but the Earth will go on. It will turn in its axis and the sun will rise. And life will go on. Some species will prosper in the new conditions, and other species will undergo changes, and divisions will occur and new species will emerge. Humans do not have the power to snuff out life, but we do have the power to snuff out species and change the world into something we cannot live in. So, do we keep this little paradise we have, or do we shuffle off and leave it to more adaptable species?
The choice is yours, isn't it?
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On the left a cross-section of a female hookworm, above the underside of a crab, and on the right the head of a tapeworm. |
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