SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE

Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation

BTM 111: Introduction to Animal Kingdom

INVERTEBRATES: Classification
2014/2015
Course Instructor: Mr. Lazaro J. Mangewa

 
 Invertebrates
Characteristics
• Invertebrates are animals without a backbone
• Lack spinal columns
• 97% of all animals are invertebrates
• Body Plans:
1. Some have Radial symmetry body plan:
– body parts are arranged
around in a circle around
a central point (starfish)
2. Some have Bilateral symmetry body plan:
– have two sides that will match if split down the
center of their body (e.g. lobster)

3. Some have Asymmetric body plan:

– these animals cannot be divided equally into two
halves nor be the same in any direction
(e.g. sponges).

• They lack a complex bony skeletal system

• have simple nervous systems and
• generally behave completely on their instinct
 PHYLA OF INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS
Phyla list: most simple to most complex:
1.Phylum Porifera:
2.Phylum Cnidaria
3.Phylum Platyhelminthes
4.Phylum Nematoda
5.Phylum Annelida
6.Phylum Mollusca
7.Phylum Arthropoda
8.Phylum Echinodermata
 1. Phylum Porifera
• These are the simplest of all animals
Characteristics:
• Sessile (non-moving) animals; e.g. sponges
• Cells are not organized into tissues or organs (e.g. no
gut)
• They have no nervous system (no brain, nerves)
– individual cells can sense and react to change environment.
• They have pores
in their body walls so that
water can enter and
– filter food out of the water
as it passes through them
• Hence, filter feeders; they feed by filtering large amounts
of water through their bodies and sieving out plankton and
organic debris.
• Habitat: most are found in the ocean
• Have skeleton of spicules
• Body plan: Asymmetry
• Reproduction
– Most are hermaphrodites , each indivindual function as both
male and female in sexual reproduction by producing sperm and
egg.
– gametes arise from choanocytes or amoebocytes.
amoebocytes
– Eggs reside in the mesohyl but
– sperm cells are carried out of sponges by water current.
Sponge structural features
 Phylum Cnidaria (Coelenterates)
• This phylum include: Jellyfish, Hydra, Sea anemones
and corals
• Phylum name comes from specialized cells
called cnidocytes
• Cnidocytes are stinging cells used for
defense and to capture prey.
 Characteristics:
• They have stinging cells (Cnidocytes) used
for defense and to capture prey.
• They are more complex than sponges.
• They have a gut, and a net-like nervous system
• They have tentacles that encircle their mouth and
used for stinging
• Two forms: Polyp or medusa
– Cnidarians usually soft-bodied, are shaped either like a
polyp (such as corals) or like a medusa (such as
jellyfishes), or even shaped as both during the course
of a life cycle.
 Characteristics…
• The body wall consists of three layers:
– an outer layer known as the epidermis,
epidermis
– a middle layer called the mesoglea,
mesoglea and
– an inner layer referred to as the gastrodermis
• Body plan: Radial symmetry
• Cnidarias have gastrovascular cavity -an internal sac
for digestion
• The gastrovascular cavity has only one opening,
saving both as mouth and anus. i.e.
– the animal takes in food and
– releases waste.
– Tentacles radiate outward from the rim of the mouth.
• Feeding habit: Carnivorous
 Phylum Platyhelminthes
• Flatworms, e.g. Planarian, flukes and tapeworms
– Have dorsoventrally flattened bodies
• Have: head, gut, and even eyes.
• Body plan: Bilaterally Symmetrical
• Sizes range from microscopic up to
20 meters long (tapeworms)
• Many are parasites
• Their bodies are solid so they are said to be
acoelomate (no hollow inside)
• They are hermaphrodites producing both eggs
and sperm, but they exchange sperm with each
other during sexual reproduction.
• They have nervous system

CLASSES
• Turbellaria (flatworm)
• Cestoda (tapeworm)
• Trematoda (trematodes/flukes)
• Class Turbellaria (flatworms)
                                   
i.  Mostly free-living (non-parasitic)
ii.  Feed on small animals, dead animals
iii.  Very flat adaptation for O2 exchange.  They
have no gas exchange organs.
                      
Class Cestoda – Tapeworms
                                              
•Live as parasites
•Head contains suckers and
hooks that lock onto the
intestinal lining of the host.
•The rest of the body is
mostly units called
proglottids that are sex
organs.
 Phylum Nematoda
Characteristics:
• The roundworms e.g. pinworms, ascaris, hookworms
• They are found in:
– most aquatic habitats,
– wet soil,
– most tissue of the plant like banana
– the body fluid and tissues of animals
• Non-segmented
• Have Bilaterally Symmetrical body
 Nematoda...
• Most are free-living, although some are parasitic.
• Adult nematodes have a pseudocoelom (tube-within-
a-tube), a closed fluid-filled space that acts as a
hydrostatic skeleton, aids in circulation and dispersal
of nutrients. 
• Nematodes lack a circulatory system, but do have a
well developed digestive system. Ascaris is a parasitic
roundworm.
• These worms are unsegmented and have a smooth
outside wall.
 Phylum Annelida
• Segmented worms
– Advantage: development of segmented bodies allowed the
formation of specialized functions in different segments
• Have multiple segments, each containing replicate
sets of organs
• E.g. each segment contains a pair of excretory
tubes called metanephridia
Three classes:
 Oligochaeta – earthworms
 Polychaeta – mostly marine
 Hirudinea – leeches
• Movement is accomplished generally through
undulation:
– Coelomic fluid serves as a hydrostatic skeleton.
– Segmentation gives worms more flexibility in
movement.
– but some species have parapodia which allow them
to move
• Habitat: in soil, sea, and fresh water, mostly as
free-living predators, bottom dwellers
• They have advanced nervous system consisting
of a brain connected to a ventral solid nerve cord,
with a ganglion in each segment.
• Annelids have advanced complete digestive
system that includes a pharynx, stomach,
intestine, and accessory glands.
• Are hermaphrodites, but they cross fertilize.
– The two mate and exchange sperm
• Has a closed circulatory system
-meaning blood contained in vessels instead of out in
the open
• Has a true body cavity (coelom).
 SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE
Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation

BTM 111: Introduction to Animal Kingdom

INVERTEBRATES: Classification
2014/2015
Course Instructor: Mr. Lazaro J. Mangewa

 
 PHYLUM MOLLUSCA
• Soft-bodied invertebrates, some covered by a shell
e.g. snails, clams, octopus, squids, oysters and more
– squids have a shell that is reduced and internal,
– nautiluses are enclosed in shells, while
– octopuses lack a shell
• Slugs, squids and octopuses have reduced shells most of
which are internal or they have lost their shells completely
during evolution
• They have the most advanced nervous system of all
invertebrates
• Possess a body part called a head-foot (muscular foot)
– used for locomotion, attachment to a substrate, food capture,
or a combination of functions
• Most mollusks have an open circulatory system:
– a heart that pumps hemolymph through vessels into a hemocoel

• All mollusks have similar body plans:

o Muscular foot
o Visceral mass with organs
o Mantle that secretes the shell

• Most land molluscs have a radula (a tongue with many rows of tiny
teeth}
Class Polyplacophora: e.g Chitons
•Have a shell that
consists of eight
overlapping plates

•Feed by scraping algae

and other plant food from
rocks

•A ventral muscular foot is

used for creeping along or
clinging to rocks
 Class Gatropoda: e.g. Snails
•Many are herbivores
that use their radula to
scrape food from
surfaces
•Carnivorous ones use
radula to bore through a
surface, such as a bivalve
•Most have a well
shell, to obtain food
developed head with eyes
and tentacles projecting from
a coiled shell that protects •The shell in terrestrial snails
the visceral mass also prevents it from
desication (drying out) in
addition to lubricating mucus
secreted
Class Bivalvia: (clams and mussels)
 Bivalvia…
• Bivalves" are two-part shells
that are hinged and closed
by powerful muscles
• have no head, no radula,
and little cephalization
• Adaptation:
– clams use their hatchet-
shaped foot for burrowing;
– mussels use it to produce
threads to attach to objects
• Sexes in class Bivalvia are
separate.
Class Cephalopoda: Squids, octopuses and nautiluses
• "head-footed” moluscs
Cephalopoda class….
• Vision:
– cephalopods have well-developed sense organs,
including focusing camera-type eyes
• Movement mechanism:
– Squids and octopuses can squeeze water from their
mantle cavity out through a funnel/siphon, thus
propelling them with a form of jet propulsion
• Feeding:
– Squids and octopuses: surrounding their head are
tentacles with suckers that can grasp prey and
deliver it to a powerful mouth.
 Class Cephalopoda…
• Defence:
– Squids and octopuses possess ink sacs from which they
squirt a cloud of ink, as a means of escaping predators

• Circulatory system well improved:

– A squid has three hearts;
• one pumps blood to internal organs;
• two pump blood to the gills in the mantle cavity
 CLASS SCAPHOPODA
• The Scaphopoda (tusk
shells) have a tapered,
tubular shell that is open at
both ends, superficially
resembling the tusk of
some mammals .

• Scaphopods lie buried in

soft sediments (usually
sand), in shallow to
moderately deep water

41
 Class Scaphopoda…

• The larger end of the shell (containing the

head and foot) facing downward, and with the
smaller aperture projecting above the surface.
• The mouth area is surrounded by tentacles
bearing adhesive knobs, which capture small
organisms such as foraminiferans

42
 PHYLUM ARTHROPODA
• E.g. crustaceans, spiders, insects
           
•Have:
oa hard exoskeleton,
osegmented bodies,
ojointed appendages
oa well developed nervous system
        
•Arthropods are the most successful of all animal phyla based on diversity,
distribution, and numbers.

•The exoskeleton, or cuticle, is composed of protein and chitin.

•Undergo ecdysis: molting of the cuticle.

•Have open circulatory systems in which a heart pumps hemolymph through

short arteries and into open spaces (sinuses).

•Improved gas exchange:

•Aquatic members have gills;
gills
•terrestrial members have tracheal system of branched tubes leading
from surface throughout body
CLASS ARACHNIDA (table 33.5 above)
• have a cephalothorax
covered with a carapace-
like shield
• abdomen may be
segmented or
unsegmented
• Appendages on the
abdomen are absent or
modified, for example
forming the spinnerets of
spiders
• Nearly all arachnids are
terrestrial 46
 CLASS ARACHNIDA ...
• Respiration is via
tracheae
• All scorpions are
nocturnal
• Their pedipalps are large
pincerlike appendages,
and their abdomen ends
in a stinger containing
venom.

47
 Reproduction: Mostly Sexual (two parents)
 Symmetry: Bilaterally Symmetrical
• Ticks are parasites that suck blood and sometimes
transmit diseases.
• Spiders have a narrow waist separating the
cephalothorax from the abdomen.
• Spiders have numerous simple eyes rather than
compound eyes.
– The chelicerae are modified as fangs with ducts from
poison glands.
– The abdomen has silk glands used to spin a web to trap
prey.
 CLASS DIPLOPODA-MILLIPEDES
• Has two pairs of legs per segment
• Most feed on decaying matter
– Hence, generally harmless detritus feeders
• Body made up of numerous segments.
• They lack poisonous fangs and do not bite
• Defense:
– rolling into a defensive ball to discourage predators
– production of poisonous or foul-smelling substances to
avoid any would be predators

49
• Feeding habit: herbivores or scavengers
 CLASS CHILOPODA- CENTIPEDE
• Centi means hundred, pede means legs, so
"hundred legged creature"
• Has 1 pair of legs per segment,
• Habita: often found under logs
• have poison claws-
o modified 1st pair of legs

51
 CLASS CRUSTACEA
• E.g. Lobsters, crabs, crayfish, shrimp,
barnacles, and several others
• A few species live in freshwater
• Crustacean bodies usually have a
head, thorax, and abdomen.
• Crustaceans utilize gills for gas
exchange.
• Most crustaceans are free-living, but
some are sessile and a few are even
parasitic.
52
• All crustaceans possess
– Two pairs of antennae,
– A pair of mandibles,
– A pair of compound eyes
– Two pairs of maxillae on their heads, followed by a pair of
appendages on each body segment.
• Some crustaceans filter tiny plankton or bacteria
from the water, while others are active
predators.
• A few crustaceans scavenge nutrients from
detritus.
• Symmetry: Bilaterally symmetrical
 CLASS INSECTA- see table 33.5 abobe
• Outnumber all other forms of animals.
• Evolved flight during Carboniferous period.  Flight was
followed by an explosion of diversity.
• Coevolution of flowering plants and insects.
• Wings are extensions of the cuticle
• Waste is removed from hemolymph by excretory organs
called malpighian tubes.  
• Nervous system has a pair of ventral nerve chords that join
in the head to form a cerebral ganglion (brain) that is close
to the sensory organs in the head (cephalization).
• Insects live in almost all terrestrial and
freshwater habitats, with a few species living in
the oceans.

• Many insects have some thoracic appendages

modified for flight

• Insects display a wide huge variation in body

styles, although there seems to be a size limit
on the insect-style of body organization.
• Body composed of three segments: head, thorax and
abdomen
• one pair of relatively large compound eyes
• one pair of antennae on the head
• mouthparts consisting of a labrum, a pair of
mandibles, a pair of maxillae, a labium, and a
tongue-like hypopharynx
• two pairs of wings derived from outgrowths of
the body wall
• three pairs of walking legs
• Insects have a complete, complex digestive
system.
• Aquatic forms may exchange gases through the
body wall or may have various kinds of gills.
• Excretion of nitrogenous waste takes place via
Malpighian tubules.
• The nervous system of insects is complex,
including a number of ganglia and a ventral,
double nerve cord.

• They exchange gases through a tracheal system,

with external openings called spiracles dividing
into finely branched tubules that carry gases
directly to metabolizing tissues.
• Sense organs are complex and acute.
– some insects are quite sensitive to sounds, and their
chemoreceptive abilities are excellent.

• Growth patterns are quite variable.

• Some insects hatch from eggs as miniature

adults, which in turn shed their exoskeleton.
• Many insects undergo metamorphosis during
their development.

• When larval growth is completed, the larva stops

feeding and builds a case or cocoon around itself.

• In this non feeding condition (pupa or chrysalis)

the larva undergoes a complete transformation
or "metamorphosis"
metamorphosis of its body form, eventually
emerging as a fully-formed adult.
• Incomplete metamorphosis is a process
whereby the young look like the adults, but have
different body proportions

• Complete metamorphosis is a process where

the larval stages (larva, maggot or grub) are
specialized for eating.
o The adult stage is specialized for reproduction and
dispersal (e.g. flight).
o The process of metamorphosis occurs during a pupal
stage.
 PHYLUM ECHINODERMATA
• includes the sea urchins, sea
stars, sea cucumbers,
starfish and sanddollars
• Echinoderms are the most
advanced invertebrates.
• They are deuterostomes
• All other invertebrates are
protostomes in which the
blastopore (first opening in
embryo) in their
development becomes the
mouth.
• Have water vascular systems
– a network of hydraulic canals used for locomotion,
feeding, and gas exchange. 
– It extends into tube feet that are used for locomotion and
feeding.

• Symmetry: Echinoderms appear to be radially

symmetrical, but are bilateral in larval stages.
• They are capable of extensive regeneration whenever parts
are dropped.
• They can reproduce asexually by fragmentation or sexually
with external fertilization.
• Have spines on the surface
 CLASSES OF ECHINODERMATA
• Class Echinoidea: sea urchins and sand dollars
– Both sea urchins and sand dollars have spines that they
use for locomotion, defense, and burrowing.

Sea Urchin Sand dollars alive Sand dollars skeloton

• Class Asteroidea: sea stars (starfishes)
– Most starfish have a dorso-ventrally flattened body
– Starfish have a central disk to which five, or a
multiple of five, sturdy arms are attached.
– Sea stars are common along rocky coasts where
they eat clams and other bivalves
• Class Holothuroidea: e.g. sea cucumbers
– they don't have a distinct radial symmetry but are
bilateral (distinct dorsal and ventral side)
– they are cucumber shaped with an elongated,
muscular, flexible body with a mouth at one end and
the anus at the other.
SELF STUDY:
• Ecological, socio-cultural and
economic values of invertebrates
 BTM 111: GROUP WORK ASSIGNMENT
2014/2015
Note:
• Mode of delivery:
– Presentation
– Submit a report
• 15 minutes- presentation
• 5 minutes-questions and responses
• Every group member shall have an equal chance for
presentation
• Dates: 17th -18th November 2014
ASSIGNEMENT
1. Describe the contribution of Evolution to wildlife-based
tourism- Mbonde Mustafa A-GR 3
2. Identify and Classify Marine invertebrates of tourism
importance in Tanzania-Stephanie Singano-GR 4
3. Identify and Classify fresh water invertebrates of tourism
importance in Tanzania-Danford Noah-GR 2
4. Identify and Classify terrestrial invertebrates of tourism
importance in Tanzania-Elizabeth Hebbert-GR 5
5. Trace and describe structural complexity in invertebrates
(Porifera to Nematodes)-Wabichi Jabil-GR 6
6. Trace and describe structural complexity in invertebrates
(Annelids to Echinoderms)-Ally Rajabu I-GR 1
7. Describe adaptations of invertebrates (Porifera to Nematodes):
– Movements
– Protection
– Feeding
– Reproduction
– Respiration,
– any other relevant ones
8. Describe adaptations of invertebrates (Annelids to Echinoderms):
– Movements
– Protection
– Feeding
– Reproduction
– Respiration,
– any other relevant ones