Arthropoda is the largest phylum of invertebrates. But more than that, it is the largest phylum in the entire animal kingdom.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, about 84% of all known animal species are arthropods, a group distinguished by a jointed exoskeleton of chitin -- armor made from a complex sugar that is excreted by the epidermis.
The basic body plan is modular. Typically, most body segments bear a pair of appendages, and the body segments are grouped into three function units: The head, the thorax, and the abdomen.
Arthropods share some characteristics with vertebrates, like bilateral symmetry. But they also differ in many ways. For example, they possess an open circulatory system, in which blood flows freely within the body cavity, rather than through blood vessels.
The phylum Arthropoda is currently divided into four subphyla:
Myriapoda (including centipedes and millipedes)
Chelicerata (including spiders, scorpions, ticks, and mites)
Crustacea, (including crabs, crayfish, lobsters, shrimp, krill, barnacles, and woodlice)
Hexopoda, (including insects, springtails, and other, insect-like relatives)
To date, most arthropod species identified by science are insects. Researchers have described approximately one million species so far, and some estimate that there may be as many as ten million insect species total. Thus, the total number of anthropod species must exceed this number.
Over all, arthropods are a very diverse and successful group. They have been found in almost every habitat, including marine and terrestrial ones. Some arthropods species have adapted to the extreme conditions of Antarctica. Others survive in the Namib desert.
https://www.britannica.com/animal/arthropod
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
What is the largest phylum of invertebrates?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Summarize the major research findings of "Toward an experimental ecology of human development."
Based on findings of prior research, the author, Bronfenbrenner proposes that methods for natural observation research have been applied in ...
-
One way to support this thesis is to explain how these great men changed the world. Indeed, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) was the quintes...
-
Polysyndeton refers to using several conjunctions in a row to achieve a dramatic effect. That can be seen in this sentence about the child: ...
-
Both boys are very charismatic and use their charisma to persuade others to follow them. The key difference of course is that Ralph uses his...
-
At the most basic level, thunderstorms and blizzards are specific weather phenomena that occur most frequently within particular seasonal cl...
-
Equation of a tangent line to the graph of function f at point (x_0,y_0) is given by y=y_0+f'(x_0)(x-x_0). The first step to finding eq...
-
Population policy is any kind of government policy that is designed to somehow regulate or control the rate of population growth. It include...
-
Gulliver cooperates with the Lilliputians because he is so interested in them. He could, obviously, squash them underfoot, but he seems to b...
No comments:
Post a Comment