This document provides an overview of the animal kingdom, describing their key characteristics and how they are classified. It discusses that animals are divided into invertebrates and vertebrates. Invertebrates make up 98% of animal species and lack backbones, while vertebrates make up the remaining 2% and include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals which all have backbones. It then examines several animal phyla in more detail, describing their defining features, organs and organ systems.

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2. What is an animal?
 Kingdom Animalia divided into two major groups:
– invertebrates
– vertebrates
Worm Snail Cockroach
 An invertebrate is an animal without a
backbone.
 About 98 percent of all animals are
invertebrates.
Invertebrate

3. Vertebrates
 Only about two percent of all animals are vertebrates
which belong to the Phylum Chordata.
 Vertebrates include fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and
mammals.
BirdFrog Rat
Animals share the following characteristics:
1. Animals are multi cellular and have eukaryotic cells.
2. Animal cells lack cell walls.
3. Animals have a period of embryonic development.
4. Animals are consumers.
5. Animals can move.
6. Most animals have muscle and nervous tissue.
7. Animals are diploid.

4.  Animals have different levels of organization.
 Some animals consist of cells with a few tissue layers.
 Others are complex with organ systems.
 All animals have sex cells that are haploid and are
produced by meiosis.
 All animal life cycles consist of haploid and diploid cell
development.

5. Animal body plan and Symmetry
 The arrangement of an animal’s body parts is called its
symmetry.
 Animals that do not have an orderly body plan, like
sponges, are called asymmetrical.
 Radial symmetry means that the body parts are arranged
in a circle around a central point.
 In bilateral symmetry, the body consists of two similar
halves.

6.  The gut is the digestive tract.
 It enables an animal to digest food
outside of its cells.
 In animals without a gut (like
sponges), food is digested inside of
their cells.
 Complex animals also have a body
cavity that holds the gut and other
organs.
 The body cavity provides an open
space for organs to grow and
function.

7.  As animals evolved and became more complex, they
developed organ systems to perform basic functions.
Organ Systems
 Some important organ systems are:
– Skeletal
– Muscular
– Circulatory
– Digestive
– Nervous
– Reproductive
 Sponges belong to the Phylum
Porifera (“pore bearing.”)
 They are asymmetrical and do not
have a body cavity.
Sponges

8.  Adult sponges do not move around.
 They feed by pulling water into the
pores of their bodies and filtering out
food particles.
 They have specialized collar cells that
move water and collect and digest food.
Cnidarians
 The Phylum Cnidarians includes
jellyfish, coral, sea anemones, and
hydra.
 They have radial symmetry and do
not have a body cavity.
 Cnidarians have differentiated cells
that are organized into two layers of
tissues and nerves that form a
network.
 Many cnidarians have specialized
stinging cells to capture food or
defend themselves.

9. Flatworms
 Planarians belong to the Phylum Platy helminthes—the
flatworms.
 Flatworms are the simplest animals having bilateral symmetry.
 They have a sac-like gut but no body cavity.
 Planarians secrete digestive
enzymes onto their food and suck
the food particles through an
organ called a pharynx.
 They digest food in a gastro
vascular cavity.
Roundworms
 Members of the Phylum Nematode are
called roundworms.
 Roundworms are the simplest animals
with a complete gut that runs from
mouth to anus.

10. Annelids
 Earthworms belong to the Phylum Annelida.
 All annelids have bodies that are divided into individual
segments.
 Annelids have bilateral symmetry and a true body cavity.

11. Mollusks
 Snails, clams, and squids are all
members of the Phylum Mollusca.
 Mollusks have bilateral symmetry and a
true body cavity.
 The body of a mollusk typically has a
foot, gut, mantle, and shell.
Body of a mollusk

12. Mollusks
 Clams and their relatives have a simple nervous system with
nerve cords and a few ganglia.
 Octopi and their relatives have a more advanced nervous
system.
 An octopus has a well-developed brain and eyes.
 Most mollusks have a sense of touch and taste.
Arthropods
 The Phylum Arthropod includes
insects, spiders, and crustaceans such
as lobsters and crabs.
 Arthropods have segmented
bodies, jointed limbs, an
exoskeleton, and well-developed organ
systems.
 Like annelids, arthropod bodies are segmented.
 Some segments form three distinct regions: a
head, a thorax, and an abdomen.

13. Echinoderms
 The Phylum Echinodermata (meaning “spiny
skin”) includes starfish, sea urchins, and sea
cucumbers.
 Echinoderms have radial symmetry, a body
cavity, an internal skeleton, and spiny skin.
 Echinoderms have a specialized water
vascular system.
 The water vascular system is a network of
fluid-filled canals connected to hundreds of
tiny, tube-like feet.
 The water vascular system helps them move
and capture food.

15. Vertebrate structure and function
 Humans and sea squirts are members of the
Phylum Chordata (called chordates).
 All chordates have a structure called a
notochord.
 A notochord is a flexible, rod-shaped
structure found in the embryos of all
chordates.
Characteristics of vertebrates
 All vertebrates have a backbone and a skull.
 The backbone is a segmented column of
interlocking bones called vertebrae.
 All vertebrates have an internal skeleton for
support, protection, and a place for muscles to
be attached.
 The bones and muscles of vertebrates work
together to provide a structural framework for
movement.

16.  All vertebrates have a body cavity that
holds the organ systems.
– The thoracic cavity holds the heart and the
lungs of air-breathing vertebrates.
– The abdominal cavity holds the digestive
organs including the stomach, intestines, and
liver.
Vertebrate organs are made of four types
of tissues
 An organ is a group of tissues that
function together.
 Vertebrate organs are made of four
types of tissues:
– nervous
– epithelial
– connective
– muscle

17. Fish
 Fish are exothermic, aquatic vertebrates with
fins, gills, and a streamlined body.
 They were the first vertebrates, and evolved about 500
million years ago.
 There are three classes of
fish living today.
– jawless fish
– cartilaginous fish
– bony fish

19. Amphibians
 Amphibians are
ectothermic, smooth-skinned
vertebrates, such as frogs and
salamanders, that usually
hatch as an aquatic larva with
gills.
Birds
 Birds are endothermic, egg-
laying vertebrates with forelimbs
modified to form wings.
 They have many adaptations for
flight such as
feathers, wings, hollow
bones, and air sacs.

20.  Mammals are endothermic vertebrates that have mammary
glands.
 Mammary glands are organs that produce a nutritious fluid
called milk.
Mammals
 Mammals evolved from a now-extinct
group of reptiles called therapsids.
 The earliest true mammals appeared
over 200 million years ago.

21. The end
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