Invertebrates

Ch: 34
 Chapter 34

The Invertebrates
Key Concepts:
• Ctenophores: The Earliest Animals
• Poifera: The Sponges
• Radiata: Jellyfish and Other Radially Symmetric Animals
• Lophotrochozoa: The Flatworms, Rotifers, Bryozoans,
Brachiopods, Mollusks, and Annelids
• Ecdysozoa: The Nematodes and Arthropods
• Deuterostomia: The Echinoderms and Chordates
• A Comparison of Animal Phyla
 Invertebrates – Animals Without a Backbone
• 95% of animal species

Our current understanding of relatedness

among animal groups starts with a common
ancestor of animals and choanoflagellates that
gives rise to all other animal groups.

This Phylogenic tree summarizes our understanding

about the evolutionary relationships among
animal groups
Ctenophores: The Earliest Animals
Comb jellies
Less than 100 species, all marine and look like jellyfish

Eight rows of cilia on surface beat for propulsion

Two long tentacles without stinging cells
• Colloblasts secrete sticky substance

First complete gut – mouth and two anal pores

Hermaphroditic
Bioluminescent
 Ctenophores
Gastrovascular cavity for extracellular
digestion
• Allows ingestion of larger food particles
• Increase in complexity over sponge’s intracellular
digestion

True nerve cells arranged in nerve net

• Interconnected neurons with no central control
organ
 A ctenophore Figure 34.2

• Ctenophores are known as

comb jellys due to eight rows of
cilia

• Differences with Bilaterians:

• Different neurotransmitters
• Lack of true Hox genes
• Absence of neuron-specific
genes

• Share three germ layers

• Non-linear evolution
 Porifera: The Sponges
One phylum: Porifera
• “pore bearers”
• Sponges
Loosely organized and lack true tissues
Multicellular with several types of cells
8,000 species, mostly marine
No apparent symmetry
Range in size from a few millimeters to more than 2
meter in diameter
Adults sessile, larvae free-swimming
Phylogenetic Relationships
 Sponge Structure
Water drawn through pores into spongocoel (central
cavity) and flows out through osculum at top
Choanocytes line spongocoel
• Trap and eat small particles and plankton
• Similar to cells of protist choanoflagellates

Mesohyl between choanocytes and epithelial cells

• Amoebocytes absorb food from choanocytes, digest it, and
carry nutrients to other cells
• Spicules (skeletal fibers) or spongin for support

Some species produce defensive chemicals

 Sponge Body Plan Figure 34.3

a) Stovepipe sponge b) Typical vase shape of sponges

c) Cross section of sponge morphology

a: ©Norbert Probst/age fotostock
 Sponge Reproduction
Sexual
• Most are hermaphrodites, producing both eggs
and sperm
• Gametes are derived from amoebocytes or
choanocytes
• Sperm released in water to fertilize eggs in
mesohyl of nearby sponges
• Zygotes develop into flagellated swimming
larvae
Asexual
• Small fragment or bud may detach and form a
new sponge
 Cnidaria: Jellyfish and Other
Radially Symmetric Animals

Phylum Cnidaria
• Jellyfish, box jellies, hydra,
sea anemonies, corals
Four Cnidarian Classes
Class and examples (est. Class characteristics
number of species)
Mostly marine; polyp stage
Hydrozoa: Portuguese man- usually dominant and colonial,
of-war, Hydra, some corals reduced medusa stage
(2,700)

Scyphozoa: jellyfish (200) All marine; medusa stage

dominant and large (up to 2
meter); reduced polyp stage

Anthozoa: sea anemones, All marine; polyp stage

sea fans, most corals dominant; medusa stage
(6,000) absent; many are colonial

Cubozoa: box jellies, sea All marine; medusa stage

wasps (20) dominant; box-shaped
 Body Forms
Two different body forms
• Sessile polyp – tubular body with tentacles
surrounding opening (serves as mouth and anus)
• Aboral end attached to substrate
• May be single (sea anemones) or colonial (corals)
• Corals deposit limestone, often producing reefs
• Motile medusa – umbrella-shaped body with a
mouth on the underside surrounded by tentacles
• Jellyfish
• May have simple sensory organs near bell margin
• Statocysts for equilibrium
• Ocelli are photosensitive
Cnidarian Body Plans
 Specialized Stinging Cells
Cnidocytes contain nematocysts
• Function in defense or prey capture
• Hairlike trigger – cnidocil
• Some are sticky, others sting

Simple nerves and contractile fibers (no true muscles)

Stinging cells Figure 34.5

a) Cnidocytes b) Portuguese man-of-war

b: ©Nature/UIG/Getty Images
 Lophotrochozoa
Members generally have either a lophophore (a
crown of ciliated tentacles)
• Bryozoans
• Brachiopods
Or a trochophore larval stage
• Mollusks
• Annelids
Molecular evidence also includes
• Rotifers, which have a lophophore-like feeding device
• Platyhelminthes, some of which have trocophore-like
larvae
 Phylum Platyhelminthes
Flatworms
Among first animals with active predatory
lifestyle

Bilaterally symmetrical with cephalization

Lack a specialized respiratory or circulatory
system
• Respire by diffusion
An incomplete digestive system with a
gastrovascular cavity
Phylogenetic Relationships of Platyhelminthes
 Flatworm Anatomy

• First triploblastic organisms – three embryonic germ layers

• Mesoderm key innovation – allowed sophisticated organs
• Acoelomate – lacking fluid-filled cavity
 Phylum Platyhelminthes II
May be predatory or parasitic
Distinct excretory system with protonephridia
and flame cells
May have light sensitive eyespots (ocelli)
Cerebral ganglia receive input
Retain nerve net with beginning of more
centralized nervous system
Sexual or asexual reproduction
• Most hermaphroditic but do not self-fertilize
Four Classes of Flatworms
Class and examples
Class characteristics
(est. number of
species)
Turbellaria: Mostly marine; free-living
planarian (3,000) flatworms; predatory or scavengers

Marine and freshwater; usually

Monogenea: fish external parasites offish; simple life
flukes (1,000) cycle (no intermediate host)

Internal parasites of vertebrates;

Cestoda: complex life cycle, usually with one
tapeworms intermediate host; no digestive
(5,000) system; nutrients absorbed across
epidermis

Trematoda: flukes Internal parasites of vertebrates;

(11,000) complex life cycle with several
intermediate hosts
 Flatworms Figure 34.7

Flatworms can be free living, and

even brightly colored, like the
racing stripe flatworm
Pseudoceros bifurcus, or internal
parasites with specialized
Free-living marine turbellairian
structures for attaching to a host,
like the scolex of a tapeworm.

Tapeworm
 The Cestode Life Cycle
• Often requires two different vertebrate species
to begin life cycle (example: cattle or pigs)
• Another host required to complete
development (example: humans)
• Scolex attaches to host
• Proglottids develop thousands of eggs and are
continuously shed in feces
• Humans often infected by eating undercooked
infected meat
 The Trematode Life Cycle
More complex than that of cestodes
First (intermediate) host is usually a mollusk
Final (definitive) host is usually a vertebrate
May include second or even a third intermediate
host
Blood flukes cause schistosomiasis
• Infect over 200 million people, mostly in tropics
• Causes chronic inflammation and blockage of organs, and
can be fatal
• Infection rates reduced with clean water
 Trematode life cycle Figure 34.8

The Chinese liver fluke is an example of a parasite with a complex life cycle. If a human, the
definitive host, eats undercooked fish with juvenile flukes present, the juveniles will mature into
adults in the liver and pass eggs out of the body via the feces. Snails, an intermediate host, eat the
eggs which transform into sporocysts and eventually into free-swimming cercariae that break out of
the snail and swim into a fish, another intermediate host, where they migrate to the fish muscle and
wait to be eaten by a human.
 Phylum Rotifera
Named for ciliated crown (corona)
2200 species – mostly freshwater and
microscopic
Digestive tract with mouth and anus
• Feed on plankton and decomposing organic matter
Mouth opens into a muscular pharynx called a
mastax
Jointed foot with pedal glands
Pseudocoelomate
Protonephridia with flame bulbs
Body plan of a rotifer Figure 34.9
Phylogenetic Relationships of Rotifera
 Unique Reproduction in Rotifers

• Parthenogenesis –unfertilized diploid eggs

develop into females
• In some species, unfertilized eggs become
degenerate males that live long enough to
produce sperm while others develop into
females
• Fertilized eggs can survive harsh conditions
and are easily dispersed
 Phylum Bryozoa and Phylum
Brachiopoda
Both have a lophophore – ciliary feeding
device that also functions in respiration
• Circular fold of the body wall with tentacles

True coelom
U-shaped alimentary canal
• Anus located near the mouth but outside the
lophophore
Phylogenetic Relationships of the
Bryozoans and Brachiopods
 Phylum Bryozoa
Small colonial animals, mostly less than 0.5
millimeter long
Encrust rocks in shallow environments and
boat hulls
Look like plants
About 4,500 species
Each animal secretes and lives inside zoecium
• Composed of chitin or calcium carbonate
 Phylum Brachiopoda
Marine with 2 shells
• Similar in appearance to clams
Dorsal and ventral valves rather than left and
right
• Valves differ slightly in size and shape
Attach to substrate with a muscular pedicle
About 300 living species, but were much more
common in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras
 Bryozoan and Brachiopod Figure 34.10

a) A bryozoan b) A brachiopod, the northern lamp shell

The lophophore of bryozoans is shaped like a feather duster and extends out of
the nonliving zoecium while in brachiopods the lophophore is located between
dorsal and ventral shells.
 Phylum Mollusca
Over 100,000 species
Great diversity
• Snails, clams, octopuses, chitons
Mostly marine
Economic, aesthetic, and ecological importance
• Food
• Farming oysters for pearls
• Damage to plants and wooden structures
• Intermediate hosts of parasites
• Exotic species can be serious pests
Phylogenetic Relationships of Phylum Mollusca
 The Mollusk Body Plan
Soft body, often with a shell
Three main parts:
• Foot – used in movement
• Visceral mass - contains organs
• Mantle – secretes a shell (if present)
Gills housed in mantle cavity
Coelom confined to small area around heart
Open circulatory system
• Heart pumps hemolymph
Mollusk body plan Figure 34.11
 Mollusk Reproduction
Metanephridia remove wastes
Nervous system may be simple or sophisticated
(octopus)
Radula – unique tongue-like organ
Most shells have three layers secreted by mantle
Separate sexes (some hermaphroditic)
Mostly external fertilization
• Some internal (key to snails colonizing land)
Trocophore larva develops into veliger with
rudimentary foot, shell and mantle
 A snail veliger Figure 34.13

Veligers are free swimming larwal forms of Mollusks

©Solvin Zankl/Alamy Stock Photo

Major Molluscan Classes
Class and examples (est. Class characteristics
number of species)

Bivalvia: clams, Marine or freshwater; shell with

mussels, oysters, two halves or valves; primarily
scallops (30,000) filter feeders with siphons

Polyplacophora: Marine; eight-plated shell

chitons (860)

Marine, freshwater, or terrestrial;

Gastropoda: snails, most with coiled shell, but shell
slugs, nudibranchs absent in slugs and nudibranchs;
(75,000) radula present

Cephalopoda: Marine; predatory, with tentacles

octopuses, squids, around mouth, often with suckers;
nautiluses (780) shell often absent or reduced; closed
circulatory system; jet propulsion via
siphon
 Mollusks Figure 34.12 (a and b)

a)A quahog clam, class Bivalvia

b)A chiton, class Polyplacophora

 Mollusks

c)A snail, class Gastropoda

d)A nudibranch, class Gastropoda

e)A blue-ringed octopus, class Cephalopoda

 Phylum Annelida
Approximately 15,000 described species
• Earthworms, leeches, free-ranging marine
worms, and tube worms

Rings are segments separated by septa

Advantages of segmentation
• Repetition provides backup
• Coelom can act as hydrostatic skeleton without
distortion of body
• Permits specialization
Phylogenetic Relationships of
Phylum Annelida
 The Annelid Body Plan
All annelids except leeches have setae on each segment
• May be situated on fleshy parapodia = like foot
Giant axons facilitate rapid response to stimuli
Double transport system
• Circulatory system and coelomic fluid both carry nutrients,
wastes and respiratory gases

Digestive system complete and unsegmented

Sexual reproduction involves two individuals (sometimes
separate sexes, others hermaphroditic) with internal
fertilization
• Asexual reproduction by fission
Segmented body plan, Earthworm Figure 34.15
 Major Annelidan Groups
Errantia
• Long setae on footlike parapodia
• Most are free-ranging predators
• Well-developed eyes, powerful jaws
• Often brightly colored

Sedentaria
• Setae close to body wall to facilitate anchoring in burrows
• Tube worms
• Marine, filter food from water with crown of tentacles
• Earthworms
• Condition soil through burrowing and feeding (castings)
• Leeches
• Primarily freshwater, generally blood-sucking external parasites,
hirudin (anticoagulant) may be used in reattachment surgeries
 Annelids Figure 34.16

Tube worm Leeches

Marine worm Earthworm

 Ecdysozoa
Separation from Lophotrochozoa supported by both
molecular data and morphology
Named for ecdysis – molting
A cuticle provides support and protection
Some species undergo metamorphosis
Internal fertilization
• Allows colonization of dry environments

Of the eight phyla, nematodes and arthropods are

most common
 Phylum Nematoda
• Roundworms
• In nearly all habitats from poles to tropics
• Over 20,000 species (more undiscovered)
• Tough collagen cuticle covers body
• Longitudinal but not circular muscles
• Pseudocoelom acts as hydrostatic skeleton
and circulatory system
• Complete digestive tract, mouth with stylets
Phylogenetic Relationships of
Phylum Nematoda
Electron micrograph of a nematode in a plant leaf
Figure 34.17

©Biophoto Associates/Science Source

 Phylum Nematoda II
Reproduction usually sexual with separate males and
females
• Females generally larger than males
• Internal fertilization
Caenorhabditis elegans – model organism
Large number of species parasitic in humans and other
vertebrates
• Ascaris lumbricoides – over 1 billion people infected
• Necator americanus – hookworm
• Enterobius vermicularis – pinworm
• Wuchereria bancrofti – causes elaphantiasis
Elephantiasis: A nematode caused disease
Figure 34.18

©Noah Seelam/Stringer/Getty Images

 Phylum Arthropoda
Perhaps most successful phylum
¾ of all described living species
Success related to body plan that permits them to
live in all major biomes
Exoskeleton made of chitin and protein
• Can be extremely tough or soft and flexible
• Provides protection, point of muscle attachment
• Relatively impermeable to water
Phylogenetic Relationships of
Phylum Arthropoda
 The Arthropod Body Plan
Segmented with jointed appendages for locomotion,
food handling, or reproduction
• Tagmata – fused body segments

Extensive cephalization
• Well developed sensory organs for sight, touch, smell,
hearing, and balance
• Compound eyes – ommatidia
• Some species also have simple eyes (ocelli)

Sophisticated brain consists of cerebral ganglia

connected to several smaller ventral ganglia
 The Arthropod Body Plan II
• Open circulatory system
• Gas exchange occurs via gills or tracheal
system with spiracles
• Complex digestive system with mouth, crop,
stomach, intestine, and rectum
• Excretion – metanephridia or Malpighian
tubules
 Body Plan of Arthropod Figure 34.19

Arthropods, as a result of their

rigid exoskeleton, have clear body
segments and jointed appendages.
Grasshoppers have many typical
arthropod features including three
primary body segments, a head,
thorax and abdomen as well as
antennae for helping sense their a)External anatomy
environment. Internally,
grasshoppers have a complex
digestive system with a crop and
digestive cecae before the
stomach, spiracles for gas
exchange, a brain and nerve
ganglia, a heart for pumping
hemolymph and Malpighian
tubules to process nitrogenous b)Internal anatomy
wastes.
Main Arthropod Subphyla
Subphyla and examples (est.
number of species)
Chelicerata: spiders, scorpions,
mites, ticks, horseshoe crabs, and one pair of fangs, and one pair of pedipalps;
sea spiders (74,000)
Myriapoda: millipedes and
centipedes (13,000)
Hexapoda: insects such as
beetles, butterflies, flies, fleas,
grasshoppers, ants, bees, wasps,
termites, and springtails (>1
million)
Crustacea: crabs, lobsters,
shrimp (45,000)
PBLQ 3
Class characteristics
Body usually with cephalothorax and abdomen only;
six pairs of appendages, including four pairs of legs,
terrestrial; predatory or parasitic
Body with head and highly segmented trunk. In millipedes,
each segment with two pairs of walking legs; terrestrial;
herbivorous. In centipedes, each segment with one pair of
walking legs; terrestrial; predatory, poison jaws
Body with head, thorax, and abdomen; mouthparts modified
for biting, chewing, sucking, or lapping; usually with two pairs
of wings and three pairs of legs; mostly terrestrial, some
freshwater; herbivorous, parasitic, or predatory
Body of two to three parts; three or more pairs of legs;
chewing mouthparts; usually marine
 Subphylum Trilobita
• Extinct early marine arthropods
• Bottom feeders
• Three main tagmata (head, thorax, and tail)
• Three longitudinal lobes
• Little specialization of body segments
A fossil trilobite Figure 34.20
 Subphylum Chelicerata
Three living classes
• Arachnida (Spiders, scorpions, ticks, and mites)
• Merostomata (horseshoe crabs)
• Pycnogonida (sea spiders)
Two tagmata – cephalothorax and abdomen
Six pairs of appendages
• Chelicerae
• Pedipalps
• Walking legs (four pairs)
 Common Arachnids Figure 34.21

a)Black widow spider b)Scorpion with young

c)Chigger mite d)Bont ticks

 Spiders
Fangs (chelicerae) are supplied with venom from
poison glands
• Partially digest prey in place by injecting digestive fluid
Abdominal spinnerets produce silk
• Used to wrap prey, construct egg sacs, and spin webs

a to c: ©NASA/SPL/Science Source
 Other Chelicerates
Scorpions
• Pedipalps modified into claws
• Abdomen tapers into a stinger used to inject
venom
• Bear live young
Mites and ticks
• Two main body segments are fused
• Many mites are free-living scavengers
• Ticks are vertebrate ectoparasites
 Subphylum Myriapoda
Class Diplopoda – millipedes
• 2 pairs of legs per segment, herbivorous
Class Chilopoda – centipedes
• 1 pair of legs per segment, carnivorous

a) Two millipedes b) A centipede

©David Aubrey/Corbis/Getty Images; ©Larry Miller/Science Source

 Subphylum Hexapoda
More insect species than all other animal species
combined
• Important crop pests, disease vectors, pollinators, and
decomposers
Six legs
Wings crucial to success – outgrowths of body wall
35 orders – differences in wings and mouthparts
(mandibles and maxillae)
Separate sexes with internal fertilization
Metamorphosis
• Complete – 4 stages, adult and larval stages very different
• Incomplete – 3 stages, young resemble miniature adults
Variety of Insect Mouthparts Figure 34.24

a)Chewing (grasshopper)

b)Piercing and blood sucking (mosquito)

c)Nectar sucking (butterfly)

d)Sponging liquid (housefly)

 Metamorphosis Figure 34.25

In complete metamorphosis,
the insect has very different
morphologies at each life stage,
from a self contained egg, to a
grub-like larvae, to an immobile
pupa, to a fully formed adult
that can be of many different
body types, such as bees and
butterflies.
Incomplete metamorphosis has
three stages, egg, nymph and
adult, but only the egg stages is
obviously different from the
other two, with nymphs
essentially miniature adults.
Major Orders of Insects

74
Major Orders of Insects

75
Major Orders of Insects

76
 PBLQ 2

Social Behavior in Insects

• Common in bees, wasps, ants, and termites
• Exhibit division of labor
 Subphylum Crustacea
Crabs, lobsters, barnacles and shrimp
Marine, fresh water, and terrestrial
Unique in having two pairs of antennae
Mandibles, maxillae and maxillipeds
Walking legs and swimmerets
• First pair of walking legs may be modified into claws
Carapace may extend over cephalothorax
May be predators, scavengers, or filter feeders
Nauplius larva very different from adult
Body plan of a crustacean Figure 34.27
 Crustacean larva Figure 34.28

The nauplius larva of most crustaceans is a very small life stage that has very
different morphology than adults and molts several times before reaching
maturity.
Common Crustaceans Figure 34.29
 DNA Barcoding:
A New Tool for Classification
Possible to use first 684 units of CO1 (cytochrome oxidase)
• All animals have this gene
• Little variation occurs among individuals of the same species

Distinguishing more than 3500 species of mosquitoes in the

field is not easy
The Mosquito Barcoding Initiative aims to catalog each
species using mtDNA to build up a mosquito DNA database
Field researchers will be able to quickly ID mosquitoes,
other disease-carrying insects, and the source of blood
meals to initiate appropriate controls
 Deuterostomia
• Deuterostome pattern of development
• Includes echinoderms and chordates
 Phylum Echinodermata
Modified radial symmetry (five parts) in adults
• Cephalization absent, simple nervous system

Endoskeleton covered with spines and pedicellariae

Water vascular system with tube feet functions in movement,
gas exchange and feeding
No excretory organs – respiration and excretion by diffusion
Autotomy – Can intentionally detach body parts that later
regenerate
Reproduce sexually with separate sexes and external
fertilization
Body plan of Echinoderm Figure 34.30

Dissection to show
reproductive
system

Dissection to
show digestive
system

Dissection to show
water vascular
system
Classes of Echinoderm
 Echinoderms Figure 34.31

a)Necklace Sea star, Fromia b)Brittle star, Ophiarachna spp., Gulf of c)Sea urchin, Heterocentrotus
monilis, Baa Atoll, Maldives Mexico trigonarius, Hawaii

d)Sea Lily, Proisocrinus ruberrimus, e)Bronze-spot sea cucumber, Holothuria

Indonesia argus.
Phylogenetic Relationships of
Phylum Chordata
 Phylum Chordata

Key distinguishing innovations

• Notochord
• Dorsal hollow nerve cord
• Pharyngeal slits
• Postanal tail
 Chordate Characteristics Figure 34.32

• All chordates exhibit all four characteristics at

some time during development
 Comparision of SSU rNA between Chordate and Invertebrates
Figure 34.33

Genetic evidence comparing vertebrate and invertebrate chordates to other

groups confirms invertebrate chordates, like the lancelet, are much more closely
related to humans than other nonchordate invertebrates.
 Subphylum Cephalochordata
• Lancelets
• 26 species
• All marine filter feeders
• Have 4 hallmarks
• Gas exchange across body surface
• Usually sessile but can leave burrow and swim
 Lancets Figure 34.34

a) Lancelet in the sand

b) Body plan of the lancelet

 Subphylum Urochordata
Tunicates – animal encased in tunic
3,000 marine species
Adult is sessile with only pharyngeal slits
Larvae tadpole-like, exhibiting all 4 chordate
hallmarks
Closest living relatives of vertebrates
• Cephalochordates more closely related to
echninoderms
May be colonial or solitary
Filter feeders with two siphons
 Tunicates

b)The larval form of the tunicate

a)Adult tunicate

• Rudimentary circulatory system

• Simple nervous system
• Mostly hermaphroditic
c)Typical tunicate
 Table 34.7 Summary of the Physical Characteristics of the Major Invertebrate Phyla

Cnidaria Arthropoda
(hydra, Mollusca Annelida (insects, Echinodermata Chordata
Ctenophora Porifera anemones, Platyhelminthes Rotifera Bryozoa and (snails, clams, (segmented Nematoda arachnids, (sea stars, sea (vertebrates
Feature (comb jellies) (sponges) jellyfish) (flatworms) (rotifers) Brachiopoda squid) worms) (roundworms) crustaceans) urchins) and others)

Digestive Complete gut Absent Gastrovascu- Gastrovascular Complete gut Complete gut Complete gut Complete gut Complete gut Complete gut Usually complete Complete gut
system lar cavity cavity (usually) gut
Circulatory Absent Absent Absent Absent Absent Absent; open Open; closed in Closed Absent Open Absent Closed
system or closed cephalopods
Respiratory Absent Absent Absent Absent Absent Absent Gills Absent Absent Trachae; gills Tube feet; Gills; lungs
system or book lungs respiratory tree
(a structure in
spiders)
Excretory Absent Absent Absent Protonephridia Protonephridia Metanephridia Metanephridia Metanephridia Excretory Excretory Absent Kidneys
system with flame cells tubules glands
resembling
metanephridia
Nervous Nerve Net Absent Nerve net Brain; cerebral Brain; nerve No brain; nerve Ganglia; nerve Brain; ventral Brain; nerve Brain; ventral No brain; nerve Well-developed
system ganglia; lateral cords ring cords nerve cord cords nerve cord ring and radial brain; dorsal
nerve chords; nerves hollow nerve
nerve net cord
Reproduction Sexual Sexual; Sexual; Sexual (most Mostly partheno- Sexual (some Sexual (some Sexual (some Sexual (some Usually sexual Sexual (some Sexual; rarely
(hemaphrodite) asexual asexual hermaphroditic); genetic; males hermaphroditic); hermaphroditic hermaphroditic) hermaphroditic) (some hermaphroditic); parthenogenetic
(budding) (budding) asexual (body appear only rarely asexual (budding) ) hermaphroditic) parthenogenetic;
splits) asexual by
regeneration (rare)

Support Mesoglea Endo- Mesoglea Parenchyma Tissue Exoskeleton Hydrostatic Hydrostatic Fluid skeleton Exoskeleton Endoskeleton of Endoskeleton
skeleton of skeleton and skeleton plates beneath of cartilage or
spicules and shell outer skin bone
collagen