Invertebrates

Invertebrates are animals without backbones.

Includes protozoa (single-celled animals), corals, sponges, sea urchins, starfish, sand
dollars, worms, snails, clams, spiders, crabs, and insects.
More than 98% of more than 2M species found
Size: from less than one millimeter to several meters long.
Display a fascinating diversity of body forms, means of locomotion, and feeding habits.
Ectotherms (cold-blooded): they warm their bodies by absorbing heat from their
surroundings.
Most invertebrates live in water or spend at least some part of their life in water.
The external layers of aquatic invertebrates are generally thin and permeable to water.

This structure allows the ready exchange of gases needed to keep the animal alive.

Some aquatic vertebrates do have specialized respiratory (breathing) structures on

their body surface.

Aquatic invertebrates feed by: ingesting their prey directly, by filter feeding, or by actively
capturing prey.

Some groups of invertebrates live on land. Common examples include the earthworms,
insects, and spiders.
These invertebrates need to have special structures to deal with life on land.

For example, earthworms have strong muscles for crawling and burrowing and,
since drying out on land is a problem for them, they secrete mucous to keep their
bodies moist. Insects and spiders move by means of several pairs of legs and are
waterproof.

Physical Characteristics
No backbone
Soft-bodied
Exoskeletons
-

Hard outer coverings such as shells for protection

Provide anchorage of muscles

Body Case
-

Coverings that surround adult insects

On land, it prevents water that bathes internal structures from evaporating

Simple nervous system

Behave almost entirely by instinct.

 Can not learn from mistakes.

E.g moths flutter in bright light even in risk of burning.
Exceptions
Octopuses- notably most intelligent species among the invertebrates.
Able to solve puzzles and retrieve food in some experiments.
Short-lived
Body plans (symmetry)

Circular body plan(radial symmetry)

-

e.g. sea stars, sea anemone, corals, etc.

Symmetry in which an organism can be divided into 2 identical halves

by a line through a central point or axis in any angle.

Often arranged around the central mouth

Often spend their adult lives fastened in one place. (sea anemone in a
rock)

circular

Body plans

Bilateral symmetry (elongated body plan)

-

Invertebrates having 2 halves, left and right, that mirrors each other.

Typically have a definite front and back end.

Elongated

Invertebrates that move in search for food.

Have head that often contains one or more pairs of eyes, together with
organs that can taste, smell, or touch.

Types of Invertebrates
Classified into phyla

About 30 major groups, however, 8 of these are the most common group of
invertebrates namely:

Mollusca

Echinodermata

Porifera

Methods of Reproduction
Asexual

Platyhelminthe
s

Annelida

Nematoda

Arthropods

Cnidaria

Includes: fragmentation, in which organism divide into 2 or more offspring; and

budding that produce buds that break away to form new life

Produce offspring genetically identical to parents

Sexual

Genes from 2 parents recombine to produce genetically unique individuals

Majority of invertebrates in this method

Sexual

Most invertebrates lay eggs

Most abandon their eggs after laying, leaving them to develop on their own, except
scorpions and Spiders.

After the egg hatches, the emerging organism is often look nothing like their
parents.

Young species known as larvae.

Undergo metamorphosis.
Larval stage -enables invertebrates to live in different habitats in different
stages of their life.

E.g, adult mussels live fastened to rocks, but their larvae live floating among
plankton.
By having larvae that drift with the currents, mussels are able to disperse
and find homes with new food sources for their adult life.
Pupa stage(transition stage)

-turning of larvae to adult is gradual to some invertebrates, except insects that turn
abruptly.

Pupa stage

Caterpillars, the larvae of butterflies and moths, often live for several months, but
they take just a few days to turn into adults.

In this stage, the caterpillars body is broken down and reassembled, forming an
adult that is ready to breed.

Phylum Porifera: Sponges

1. Non-moving (sessile) animals
2. No nerves or muscles (no tissue differentiation)
3. Mostly marine
4. Filter feeders: Collect food particles from water
5. Most sponges are hermaphrodites. Hermaphrodites function as both male and female
in sexual reproduction by producing eggs and sperm.

 Reproduction occurs either sexually or asexually. In the former case, the sponges are
usually hermaphroditic but cross-fertilize one another. Eggs and sperm unite to produce a
free-swimming larva that settles on a new surface. Reproduction can also occur by small,
internal asexual buds called gemules, each one able to give rise to a new sponge. Sponges
have also been of great interest to developmental biologists because sponges are able to
reconstitute themselves if their cells are separated into a suspension.
Cnidarians
Polyp and medusa forms of cnidarians.
Radial symmetry with central digestive (gastrovascular) cavity.
One opening in the gastrovascular cavity serves as both mouth and anus.
Carnivores.
Phylum name comes from specialized cells called cnidocytes.
Cnidocytes are stinging cells used for defense and to capture prey.
Cnidarians make up the phylum Cnidaria, which encompasses more than 9,000 species,
including corals, hydras, jellyfish, Portuguese man-of-war, and sea anemones.
Reproduction in cnidarians varies among the different species. They may reproduce by
means of asexual reproduction, sexual reproduction, or both. Polyps generally perform
asexual reproduction by budding, in which an outgrowth from the body wall separates to
form a new polyp or medusa. Medusae primarily reproduce sexuallythey produce
gametes (sex cells), and a gamete (sperm) from a male medusa fuses with a gamete (egg)
from a female medusa to form a zygote. The zygote develops into a larva, which in turn
develops into a polyp or medusa. The medusae of some cnidarians may also form polyps
by budding.
The reproductive life cycle of a typical jellyfish illustrates both asexual and sexual
reproduction. Males release sperm and females release eggs into the water. When an egg
and sperm fuse during sexual reproduction, a larva develops that attaches to a rock or
other object and develops into a polyp. In a type of asexual reproduction, the polyp divides
to form a colony of polyps that resembles a stack of saucers. Each saucer in the stack
develops tentacles and swims away from the colony as a new medusa, and the
reproductive cycle repeats.

Phylum Platyhelminthes: Flatworms

Sizes range from microscopic up to 20 meters long (tapeworms).
Many are parasites.
A flatworm reproduces by splitting in two. When a flatworm is split up it immediately
forms a new flatworm.

Phylum Mollusca: Mollusks

Snails, clams, octopi, squids, oysters
There are at least 150,000 known species

All mollusks have similar body plans:

a. Muscular foot
b. Visceral mass with organs
c. Mantle that secretes the shell
Mollusk, common name for members of a phylum of soft-bodied animals (Latin mollus, soft),
usually with a hard external shell. Familiar mollusks include the clam, oyster, snail, slug, octopus,
and squid. The mollusk phylum is the second largest in the animal kingdom, after the arthropods.
Phylum Arthropoda: Arthropods (crustaceans, spiders, insects)
Hard exoskeleton, segmented bodies, jointed appendages
Arthropods are the most successful of all animal phyla based on diversity, distribution,
and numbers.
Nearly one million species identified so far, mostly insects.
The exoskeleton, or cuticle, is composed of protein and chitin.
Molting of the cuticle is called ecdysis.
Extensive cephalization.

Open circulatory systems in which a heart pumps hemolymph through short arteries and into
open spaces (sinuses).
Aquatic members- gills for gas exchange; terrestrial members- tracheal system of branched
tubes leading from surface throughout body.

In most instances, both sexes of arthropods occur separately. Males commonly pass sperm to
females in sealed packets called spermatophores. The males lay these packets on the ground,
and the females later pick them up, or the male deposits them into the female's genital opening.
Among crustaceans, millipedes, spiders, mites and some insects, males transfer sperm directly
to females.
Fertilized arthropod eggs hatch after days, weeks, months, and even years. Most species deposit
their eggs externally, but some species hatch their eggs internally, bearing live young. In many
species, such as spiders, the hatchlings look like miniature adults. The larvae of other arthropod
species have little or no physical resemblance to adults. For example, caterpillars are quite
distinct from the butterflies that they become as adults. These larvae, in the process of
metamorphosis, pass through a series of distinct phases to become adults. Larvae may also
inhabit different environments and eat different foods than their parents. The life spans of
arthropods range from a few weeks to several decades.
Echinoderm, common name for about 6000 living species constituting a phylum of marine
animals, such as starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers. They
usually show a superficial five-part radial symmetry, and generally are equipped with peculiar
tube feet. The phylum name is derived from the spiny skin.
The sexes are separated and fertilization occurs in the ocean.

Most starfish have separate sexes and spawn both sperm and eggs into the water, where
fertilization and early development occur. Sometimes the mother retains the eggs on the bottom
and protects them. Many starfish have the power to regenerate body parts, and in some starfish
this becomes a regular means of asexual reproduction, new animals being produced from each
fragment.
Annelid, common name for about 9000 species of wormlike invertebrate animals with welldeveloped segmentation. The three major classes of the annelid phylum are the bristle worms
(about 5300 species), which are mainly marine and often luminescent; the oligochaetes (about
3100 species), which are mostly freshwater or inhabit the soil, such as the earthworm; and the
leeches (about 300 species), which are mainly freshwater but may also be marine or terrestrial.
Are hermaphroditic. But the eggs of one worm can be fertilized only by sperms from another
worm.
Invertebrates lack vertebrae. This group covers a wide range of organisms, from single-celled
Protozoans to those members of the phylum Chordata that lack a
vertebral column.
Habitat
Invertebrates occupy all habitats. They live in all types of marine substrates, from soft oozes to
rocky bottoms. Swimming forms may be found at all depths of the sea and include forms
specialized to live in the nutrient-poor, perpetually cold and sunless waters of the deep sea as
well as a species specialized to live under the surface film of the open ocean.
Invertebrates occur over a wide range of aquatic habitats, being common in fresh, brackish, and
fully marine environments. Some forms occur in hypersaline environments, where the salinity
may greatly exceed that of full-strength seawater.
Terrestrial habitats, including subterranean locations, are universally occupied by invertebrate
forms. Even the air has an invertebrate fauna in insects and spiders.
In all of these habitats invertebrates may occupy a wide range of temperatures, from nearfreezing in the ocean depths to forms living in hot springs or hydrothermal vents. Invertebrates
also range over a wide series of oxygen conditions, from richly oxygenated fresh water to
oxygen-poor muds and oxygen-free parasitic environments.
The number of invertebrate species extant today is difficult to estimate. As many as 4.5 million
species may exist, but only half have been named. Indeed, through habitat destruction,
terrestrial species may be vanishing forever at a more rapid rate than scientists are discovering
them.
STAGES OF SPONGE
LIFE CYCLE
There are two basic forms in the life cycle of a sponge. Most sponges live their lives attached to a
reef. They don't move around. There was a time in their lives when they were little larvae that
they were swimming around the water all by themselves. The word larva is another way to
describe them when they are babies. Baby sponges don't look like adult sponges, so scientists
use another word. Once the larvae land on a piece of rock, they take root (so to speak) and that's
that, forever anchored.
Sponges are really just a bunch of specialized cells working together to help the entire organism
survive. Sponges do not have nervous systems, so they don't react to the world around them.
Sponges are in the shape of a big "U." On the outside of the U are protective cells, but on the
inside are these very special cells with little flagella (wildly whipping tail structures).

Those flagella are constantly moving and keeping the water circulating inside of the sponge.
Water is sucked in through holes/pores in the side of the sponge. We told you to remember the
holes. When the water moves through the sponge, tiny food particles are filtered out of the
water by the flagella. Then the water gets pushed out of the sponge through a hole called an
osculum. That's basically the life of a sponge. Suck the water in, filter out the food, and send the
water out.
THE CHOANOCYTE
The entire life of a sponge revolves around one type of cell. We already told you about flagella.
Those flagella are part of a cell called a choanocyte. It's a cell that has three basic parts:
flagella, collar, and cell body. Sponges use the flagella to move when they are larvae. The flagella
and collar work together to gather food. Sponges even use the choanocyte when it's time to
reproduce.

Coelenterata
Coelenterates (10,000 species) include the jellyfishes, hydroids, sea anemones, and colonial
corrals. All are marine except for a few freshwater forms (including the hydra, the common pond
dweller). The comb jellies (phylum Ctenophora, 80 species) are closely related to coelenterates.
All are marine, most being pelagic (deep-sea dwelling).

LIFE CYCLE OF JELLYFISHES

During their life cycle, jellyfish experience an alternation of generations in which one generation
(the medussa) reproduces sexually and the next generation (the polyp) reproduces asexually.
The medusa form is the dominant and most recognized form of the jellyfish. Overall, the basic
stages in the life cycle of a jellyfish include:

egg and sperm

planula larva

polyp (or scyphistoma)

polyp hydroid colony (or strobilating scyphistomata)

ephyra

medusa

Egg and Sperm

Jellyfish reproduce sexually so adult jellyfish are either male or female. Both sexes have
reproductive organs called gonads. The gonads in males produce sperm, in females they produce
eggs. When jellyfish are ready to mate, the male releases sperm through its mouth opening
located on the underside of its bell. The fertilization of eggs in the female jellyfish depends on
the species.
In some species, the female's eggs attach themselves to brood pouches located on the upper
part of her oral arms surrounding her mouth. Then when she swims through the male's sperm
the eggs become fertilized. In other species of jellyfish, the eggs are retained inside her mouth
and the male's sperm swims into her stomach where it fertilizes the eggs. The fertilized eggs
later leave the stomach and attach themselves to the female's oral arms.
Planula Larva
After the fertilized eggs have undergone embryonic develoment, they hatch and the freeswimming planulae that emerge then leave the female's mouth or brood pouch and set out on
their own. The planula larva is a short-lived stage in the jellyfish's life cycle. A planula is a tiny
oval structure whose outer layer is lined with minute hairs called cilia. The cilia beat together to
propel the planula through the water, but the motion of the cilia does not carry the planula far,
instead ocean currents are responsible for transporting planulae long distances. The planula
floats for a few days at the surface of the sea. It then drops downward to settle on a solid
substrate where it attaches itself and begins its development into a polyp.
Polyp (or Scyphistoma)
After settling to the sea floor, the planula larva attaches itself to a hard surface and transforms
into a polyp (or scyphistoma). This polyp stage in the jellyfish life cycle is a sessile stage, so
called because the polyp is stationary and remains attached to a single spot on the sea floor. A
polyp is cylindrical and stalk-like in form. At its base is a disc that adheres to the substrate and
its top is a mouth opening surrounded by small tentacles. The polyp feeds by drawing food into
its mouth. It grows and begins to bud new polyps from its trunk. As it does, the
polyp develops into what is called a polyp hydroid colony (or strobilating scyphistomata).
Members of the polyp colony are linked together by feeding tubes. The entire polyp hydroid
colony, like the originating polyp, is sessile. The polyp colony can grow for several years. When
polyps within the colony reach an adequate size, they are ready to begin the next stage in the
jellyfish life cycle.
Ephyra and Medusa
When the polyp hydroid colony is ready to transform, the stalk portion of its polyps begin to
develop horizontal grooves. These grooves continue to deepen until the polyp resembles a
stack of saucers. The topmost groove matures the fastest and eventually buds off as a tiny baby
jellyfish also known as an ephyra. The budding process by which polyps release ephyra is
asexual. The ephyra grow in size and become the adult (medusa) form of jellyfish.

Platyhelminthes LIFE CYCLE

Parasitic flatworms are also known as flukes. One New Zealand species, Curtuteria australis, is a
common parasite of shellfish and shorebirds. They start life as eggs that are passed out in the
faeces of birds such as oystercatchers. If eaten by a mudflat snail, or whelk, the eggs hatch and
the larvae multiply by budding. The tiny fluke larvae leave their whelk hosts and invade another
shellfish, cockles. The larvae accumulate in the foot of cockles, preventing them burrowing into
the mud to escape predation. The stranded cockles are eaten by oystercatchers. Once inside the
bird, the flukes mature and produce fertilised eggs, and the cycle begins again.

The mollusks are a major phylum (130,000 soecies), including the snails, bivalves (clams and
oysters), chitons, cephalopods (squids and octopuses), as well as a few minor groups. Mollusks
have invaded every major environment, being found in marine, freshwater (snails and bivalves
only), and terrestrial (snails only) habitats. A few snails are also parasitic. Mollusks include some
of the largest invertebrates (giant clam and giant squid).
LIFE CYCLE OF SNAILS
The reproduction process of the snail is one that has some unusual patterns to it when compared
to that of other land animals.
In other ways though the process is the same as what you would expect. Learning more about

this process will help you to see why there are often concerns about snails and other offspring
being able to survive in the future. It takes them about two years to be mature.
Land snails engage in various types of courting rituals to attract mates. They can last for a
couple of hours or half a day. They dont make sounds to call out to each other like many types of
animals do. It may surprise you to learn that snails dont have the ability to hear. So they use
touching as a way of courting. They may cover each other in slime that they produce from their
bodies before mating.
"Snails take about two years to be mature for reproduction"
It is believed this slime also makes it easier for them to engage in the actual mating process.
Once they have done so they will go their separate directions. What is interesting is that each
snail has both types of reproductive parts. During the mating process both of them will conceive
up to 100 eggs. These eggs are extremely small and they will be deposited into the moist soil. It
can take up to four weeks for them to emerge.
Many land snails mate on a monthly basis as long as their living conditions are adequate for
survival. These eggs will be deposited in moist ground where there is plenty of shade. They are
under the top layers of soil but if you dig a bit you will be able to find them.
Even with so many eggs being deposited, only a fraction of these snails make it to maturity.
Many of the eggs are washed away by rain and water people use in their yards and gardens.
Young snails are often consumed by predators because they are slow and they are plentiful.
When they offspring emerge from their eggs, they immediately need to get calcium into their
bodies. They are born with a shell but it is in a fragile state. The calcium will help it to quickly
harden up which offers them plenty of protection. The first thing they will instinctively consume
after hatching is the shell of the very egg they came from. The shell continues to grow with the
snail over the course of its life. The part of the shell it is born will end up in the middle of it when
they are fully grown.
Snails grow rings inside of the shell as they grow. This is how scientists and researchers are able
to get a good idea of how old they are. For the most part it seems that snails live a life that is
slow paced and very basic. You can tell if a snail is full grown or not by looking at the part of the
shell that opens up to the rest of the body. If there is a small lip on it then the snail wont grow
anymore. If it is missing then the snail still will continue to get bigger.
Many experts worry that large numbers of snails have started to be deleted out there due to
increased pollution. The other problem is that there are so many changes to the habitats where
they live. Yet there doesnt seem to be any large scale efforts in place to protect the snails like
there is for many other types of animals. They simply arent viewed as being important enough.

The annelid worms (8,800 species) encompass many marine (polychaetes), freshwater, and
terrestrial (earthworms and other oligochaetes) types and an important group of parasites
(leeches). They all have many-segmented bodies and well-developed musculature. Three small
phyla, all marine, are sometimes treated as annelids allies, the spoonworms (phylum Echiura, 60
species), peanut worms (phylum Sipuncula, 275 species), and phylum Priapulida (8 species).
Onychophora
The onychophorans (65 species) are a curious missing link between the Annelida and
Arthropoda. They are small forms living under leaf litter of tropical forests.
Reproductive organs
Both sexes possess pairs of gonads, opening via a channel called a gonoduct into a
common genital opening, the gonopore, which is located on the rear ventral side.
Both the gonads and the gonoduct are derived from true coelom tissue.
In females, the two ovaries are joined in the middle and to the horizontal diaphragm.
The gonoduct appears differently depending on whether the species is live-bearing or
egg-laying. In the former, each exit channel divides into a slender oviduct and a
roomy "womb", the uterus, in which the embryos develop. The single vagina, to which
both uteri are connected, runs outward to the gonopore. In egg-laying species, whose
gonoduct is uniformly constructed, the genital opening lies at the tip of a long egglaying apparatus, the ovipositor. The females of many species also possess a sperm
repository called the receptacle seminis, in which sperm cells from males can be
stored temporarily or for longer periods.
Arthropoda
The arthropods (about 900,000 species) are enormously diverse. Recent work suggests that
some of the major branches are not closely related and should be relegated to separate phyla.
Arthropods include the chelicerates (trilobites, horseshoe crabs, spiders, scorpions, ticks and
mites). Present-day representatives are mostly terrestrial, with ticks and mites representing
important parasitic types.
The crustaceans (fairy shrimp, ostracods, copepods, barnacles, shrimp, crabs, lobsters, pillbugs)
are mostly marine, but also include important freshwater, terrestrial, and parasitic
representatives. The insects, however, include important freshwater and parasitic groups and a

few marine forms. Insects dominate the terrestrial fauna. Among the parasitic insects are lice
and fleas. Insects are also remarkable for their development of highly organized social colonies
among the termites, ants, bees, and wasps.
ChaetOgnatha
The arrowworms (55 species) are a small group of transparent, unsegmented, pelagic predators.
They feed on other marine planktonic animals.
Chordata
The final, partially invertebrate phylum encompasses three groups of seemingly dissimilar
chordates. Two are considered invertebrates, and the third and by far the largest is the
vertebrates. All possess three distinctive features at some stage in their lives: a flexible stiffening
notochord, a dorsal hollow nerve cord, and gill clefts.
Of the two invertebrates group, the urochordates (class Tunicata, 1,300 species) include the
abundant, attached, filter-feeding sea squirts (tunicates) as well as some less well known
planktonic forms. Like the urochordates, the cephalochordates are entirely marine.
Cephalochordates, however, are active swimmers, filter-feeding while moving in and out of the
sand along beaches.

Because the invertebrates are such a diverse group of organisms, many different schemes have
been advanced to classify them. Important features considered with regard to the body plan are
changes in the basic symmetry of the organism, its gut structure, the development of body
cavities, and the increase in cell types and their arrangement in organ systems.
REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM
In addition to gonads, most invertebrates have a wide variety of accessory reproductive
structures. Ducts and channels permit movement of reproductive products. Sperm may be stored
in the male reproductive system in seminal vesicles or in the female system in seminal
receptacles. Forms producing shelled eggs, including flatworms, mollusks, and arthropods, have
accessory glands to produce the shells and a storage chamber (uterus) to hold the finished
product. Although many groups have separate male and female individuals, most flatworms,
some mollusks, and a few arthropods have both sexes combined in a single individual.
Reproductive development of both sexes may be simultaneous or sequential with first the male
and then the female system maturing. Sex may be determined genetically or, in a few forms,
such as slipper shell snails, sex may be environmentally determined. Among several of the lower
invertebrates the primary form of reproduction is asexual.
REGENERATION
Most invertebrate phyla have excellent abilities to regenerate parts of the body if injured. The
freshwater planarian flatworm can regenerate if cut into several pieces. More limited abilities
typify other phyla.
LIFE CYCLE
Many invertebrates have complicated life cycles. These developmental stages are often
specialized for different functions. Many marine forms release numerous eggs that hatch as
planktonic larvae, specialized for dispersal. Larval stages are followed by a habitat-selection
stage, in which the organism attempts to settle in a habitat suitable for the development of the
juvenile and adult forms. Between successive stages, these animals typically undergo
complicated metamorphoses. Virtually every tissue and organ of a stage may be reorganized to
form a new structure in the succeeding stage.

ECHINODERMS

phylum of marine animals.

consists of sea lilies, sea stars, brittle styars,

cucumbers.

Echinoderms are found at every ocean depth, from the intertidal zone to the abyssal zone.

The phylum contains about 70,000 living species

phylum of marine animals.

consists of sea lilies, sea stars, brittle styars,

cucumbers.

Echinoderms are found at every ocean depth, from the intertidal zone to the abyssal zone.

The phylum contains about 70,000 living species

Do not have a distinct head ,excretory organs and no brain

They poses tubular feet for motion, food handling and respiration. A complex hemal
system present.

Respiration by minute dermal branchiae (skin gills) or papulae protruding from the coelom
by tube feet

sea urchins, sand dollars and sea

sea urchins, sand dollars and sea

Regeneration

A starfish cut radially into a number of parts will, over the course of several months,
regenerate into as many separate, viable starfish. A section as small as a single arm (with
the commensurate central-body mass and neural tissue) will, under ideal circumstances,
successfully regenerate in this way.

Brittle stars, which are so named because sections of the arms can easily break off,
regenerate the missing arms.

Sea cucumbers when threatened can eviscerateeject their internal organs through their
anusand later regenerate the lost parts.

Three different circulatory systems:

Water vascular system - consists of the madreporite, the stone canal, the ring canal,
radial canals, ampullae and tube feet.

Transport system - body fluids circulate throughout the tissues

Haemal system - doesn't do much in most echinoderms except sea cucumbers. Its
main function is to act as a "blood system"

Sexual reproduction

Importance of echinoderms

Sea urchins are a food item for humans,

Sea urchin is a popular food in Korean cuisine, and it is called "uni"

Japanese sushi cuisine.

It is also a traditional food in Chile, where it is known as an "erizo,"

highly appreciated in Spain. Apart from domestic consumption, Chile and a number of
other countries export the sea urchin to Japan in order to meet its demand throughout the
country.

Medicinally, some varieties of sea cucumber (known as gamat in Malaysia) are said to
have excellent healing properties. There are pharmaceutical companies being built based
on this gamat product. Extracts are prepared and made into oil, cream, or cosmetics.
Some products are intended to be taken internally. Claims have been made that sea
cucumber helps a wound heal more quickly and reduces scarring.

Aesthetically, the diverse forms of the echinoderms, and their sometimes brilliant coloring,
is often a source of joy to humans observing them.

PLATYHELMINTHES
are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegmented, soft-bodied invertebrate
animals. Unlike other bilaterians, they have no body cavity, and no specialized circulatory
and respiratory organs, which restricts them to flattened shapes that allow oxygen and
nutrients to pass through their bodies by diffusion.
These flat-bodied worms are small, inconspicuous animals with digestive, nervous,
excretory and reproductive systems. Some of them are free-living while others are
parasitic, living in the bodies of various animals, including humans.
are divided into Turbellaria, which are mostly non-parasitic animals such as planarians
Turbellaria a FREE LIVING flatworm
Trematoda the FLUKES
Cestoda the TAPEWORMS
TURBELLARIA
Also called as Planaria,is a free living flatworm

 These have about 4,500 species, and range from 1 mm (0.039 in) to 600 mm (24 in) in
length and vary in color, from black to brown to white.
Are non parasitic flatworms that thrive in fresh water habitats, most especially in ponds
and streams
Bilaterally symmetrical, with a blunt anterior end and a pointed posterior end.
PARTS
Functions: The planaria is a free-living flatworm. Most flatworms are parasitic. The ectoderm is
the outer skin and the endoderm is the inner skin that lives the gastrovascular cavity. The middle
cells are called mesoderm. None of these cells are labeled. The eyespots sense light. The brain
and nerves coordinate the muscles (unlabeled) of the body. The gastrovascular cavity digests
food and circulates it to all body parts. The pharynx serves as the mouth and obtains food.

Two eyespots (photosensitive) are found at the anterior end.

The food-getting and digestive systems consist of the intestines, digestive cavity, and
pharynx. Cells lining the intestine ingest the food particles and digest them in food
vacuoles. Digested food passes to all body tissues by diffusion. Indigestible waste
materials are eliminated through the pharynx and mouth opening while cellular wastes are
collected by a system of tubules that branch throughout the animals body. Some tubules
have blind endings, each of which is enlarged and modified into a structure called a flame
cell. The flame cells, with cilia, cause the fluid in the tubules to move through the system
to the several tiny excretory pores that open on the surface of the worms body.

The nervous system is well-developed compared to other lower forms of animals. It consists of
the brain lying just beneath the eyespot and a concentration of nervous tissue at the anterior
end, the nerves of which lead directly to the brain. A bladder-like appearance of a nervous
system is brought about by two longitudinal nerves running along either side of the body near
the ventral surface and the transverse nerves which connect the longitudinal nerves on both
sides.
MOVEMENT
Change positions by a movement characterized by the anterior end of the body moving
from side to side and the whole organism gliding forward.
This is accomplished by muscular contractions aided by the cilia on the ventral surface of
the body
FLATWORM REPRODUCTION
Field of orientation
Organization of regeneration
If a planarian is cut into anterior and posterior sections, each one will develop the
other end.

Generally all flatworms are hermaphroditic, meaning an individual flatworm has both male
and female reproductive components. They engage in sexual and asexual reproduction,
with the dominant mode of reproduction varying among species.

Asexually, flatworms procreate via fragmentation and budding. Fragmentation, also called
cloning, occurs when a flatworm splits off a part of its body, allowing the separated portion
to regenerate into a new worm. With budding, a flatworm grows an extension from its

body. This extension, or bud, becomes a new worm and separates from the original
flatworm.

There are also multiple methods of flatworm sexual reproduction. Because a flatworm is
hermaphroditic, it can produce eggs within its body and also fertilize them with sperm,
also generated in its body. Another method of reproduction involves physical contact
between two flatworms, where the sperm of one flatworm is absorbed into the skin of
another. With some species, this occurs through penis fencing, where flatworms use their
penis to compete in trying to pierce the skin of a potential mother.

Ultimately, fertilized eggs are encased in a cocoon within a flatworm's body. The cocoon is
released into environments such as amid water weeds. The cocoon nourishes the eggs,
which develop and later hatch.

PARASITIC FLATWORMS
They differ according to the following:
they have no ability to replace lost parts.
they are faced with different problems.
sizes are limited by the sizes of their hosts.
they have different body parts or structures for survival or better protection.
certain systems in their bodies are reduced or lost.
dispersal and survival are more difficult as their larval forms may be free living or may
take other organisms as host.
TREMATODA (the FLUKES)
These parasites' name refers to the cavity in their holdfasts (Greek , hole), which
resemble suckers and anchor them within their hosts. The skin of all species is a
syncitium, a layer of cells that shares a single external membrane. Trematodes are divided
into two groups, Digenea and Aspidogastrea (also known as Aspodibothrea).
Some live as ectoparasites, while some as endoparasites, living in various parts of the
hosts body including the blood, liver, and intestine.
Some have a thick tegument and one or more suckers, which they use to cling to the
tissues of the host.
Though the body systems in a fluke are similar to those in a planarian, the difference lies
in the complexity of the systems.
CESTODA (TAPEWORMS)
An adult tapeworm has a flat, ribbon-like body and is grayish-white in color.
At the anterior end is the head called scolex, which is equipped with suckers, and in
certain species, with a ring of hooks. Below the slender neck are body sections called
proglottids, which mat extend to a length of 9 mm.
the worm grows by adding new sections, thus, these proglottids are essential masses of
reproductive organs.
Examples

 Beef tapeworm (Taenia Saginata) in cattle

Pork tapeworm (Taenia Solium) in pigs

Flatworms life cycle

The life cycles of the free-living forms are relatively simple. Fertilized eggs are laid singly
or in batches. Frequently they are attached to some object or surface by an adhesive
secretion. After a period of embryonic development, free-swimming larvae or minute
worms emerge.

In contrast, parasitic platyhelminths undergo very complex life cycles, often involving
several larval stages in other animalsthe intermediate hosts; these hosts may be
invertebrate or vertebrate.

FLUKES LIFE CYCLE

A portion of a life cycle, the larval stage is spent in the body of the snail. From the snail,
the larvae, which have passed through several stages, crawl on blades of grass and form
cysts. Any grass-eating animals like sheep, carabao, or pig may eat a cysts, which grows
into an adult fluke inside the animals body, particularly in the liver and gallbladder. Eggs
laid by the adult fluke by the adult fluke pass from the gallbladder to the intestine from
which they are eliminated to hatch into young worms, called larvae if they fall into water.
The lifecycle is repeated.

TAPEWORMS LIFE CYCLE

Fertilize eggs in their proglottids. When the eggs mature, the proglottids break off and
the eggs are eliminated in the hosts feces. The released eggs are then eaten by some
pigs or cows. In the bodies of the new hosts, the eggs hatch into larvae which burrow into
the muscles and form cysts. The worm can again enter the human body when a person
eats the infected meat.

Sponges
-

are a diverse group of sometimes common types, with about 5000 species known across
the world. Sponges are primarily marine, but around 150 species live in fresh water.

Sponges have cellular-level organization, meaning that that their cells are specialized so
that different cells perform different functions, but similar cells are not organized into
tissues and bodies are a sort of loose aggregation of different kinds of cells. This is the
simplest kind of cellular organization found among parazoans.
-

Classification

Kingdom:

Phylum :

Classes:
Calcarea (calcerous sponges having spicules), Demospongiae (horn
sponges, like the bath sponge), Scleropongiae (coralline or tropical reef sponges), and
Hexactinellida (glass sponges).

Animalia (animals)
Porifera (sponges)

Characteristics
Traditionally, sponges have been regarded as a monophyletic group defined by several
synapomorphies (Hooper, Van Soest, and Debrenne 2002), including the presence of:
choanocytes
-an aquiferous system with external pores
mineral spicules
-high cellular mobility and totipotency
-the sponge body is unique among animals because it continuously remolds itself to fine-tune its
filter-feeding system. The constant rearrangement of the body is accomplished by the amoeboid
movements of cells inside the sponge and their change from one differentiated form to another.
Although often considered immobile, sponges also display several behavioral patterns (resulting
from coordinated movements of cells), including crawling, production of filamentous body
extensions and body contractions (Nickel 2004). It is also often mentioned that sponges lack
many characteristics associated with other animals, including a mouth, sensory organs,
organized tissues and neurons and muscle cells, which are otherwise ubiquitous in Metazoa. It is
difficult to say, however, whether the lack of aforementioned features represents a primitive
condition of sponges or a secondary loss due to their sedentary and water-filtering lifestyle.
Indeed, a recent study has shown that the homoscleromorph sponges possess several
characteristics thought to be absent in sponges, including the presence of true epithelia (BouryEsnault et al. 2003). Another study has found that although sponges do not have neurons, their
genome contains most of the components needed to build a post-synaptic protein scaffold that is
essential for neural impulse transduction in other animals.
ANATOMY:- The body of this primitive animal has thousands of pores which let water flow
through it continually. Sponges obtain nourishment and oxygen from this flowing water. The
flowing water also carries out waste products.
The body of a sponge has two outer layers separated by an acellular (having no cells) gel layer
called the mesohyl (also called the mesenchyme). In the gel layer are either spicules (supportive
needles made of calcium carbonate) or spongin fibers (a flexible skeletal material made from
protein). Sponges have neither tissues nor organs. Different sponges form different shapes,
including tubes, fans, cups, cones, blobs, barrels, and crusts. These invertebrates range in size
from a few millimeters to 2 meters tall.
Reproduction:

-Most sponges are hermaphrodites (each adult can act as either the female or the male in
reproduction). Fertilization is internal in most species; some released sperm randomly float to
another sponge with the water current. If a sperm is caught by another sponge's collar cells
(choanocytes), fertilization of an egg by the traveling sperm takes place inside the sponge. The
resulting tiny larva is released and is free-swimming; it uses tiny cilia (hairs ) to propel itself
through the water. The larva eventually settles on the sea floor, becomes sessile and grows into
an adult.
Some sponges also reproduce asexually; fragments of their body (buds) are broken off by water
currents and carried to another location, where the sponge will grow into a clone of the parent
sponge (its DNA is identical to the parent's DNA).

Cnidaria
Symmetry radial, the individual a sessile cylindrical polyp, often in colonies, or a bell-like
free-floating medusa w/ such gelatinous mesoglea, stinging capsules (nematocysts)
present; digestive cavity saclike, sometimes branched; mouth surrounded by soft
tentacles; no anus, head, or other organ system; all aquatic chieftly marine, attached of
floating.
also known as coelenterates, diverse group of aquatic, invertebrate animals armed with
microscopic stinging structures. Cnidarians make up the phylum Cnidaria, which
encompasses more than 9,000 species, including corals, hydras, jellyfish, Portuguese manof-war, and sea anemones. Cnidarians live in all oceans, and a few species inhabit fresh
water.
Characteristics
Body of two layers of cells, an internal epidermis and an inner gastrodermis, with a varying
amount of mesoglea between; nematocysts in either or both layers.
No circulatory, excretory or respiratory organs.
Mouth surrounded by soft tentacles and connecting to a saclike digestive (gastrovascular)
cavity that may be branched or divided by septa; no anus.
Skeleton limy, horny, ornone; muscle fibers in epithelia.
Reproduction commonly with asexual budding in the attached (polyp) stage and with
sexual reproduction by gametes in the medusa stage; monoecious or dioecious; some with
simple gonads but no sex ducts; cleavage holoblastic; a ciliated planula larva; mouth
forms from blastopore.
Reproduction
They may reproduce by means of asexual reproduction, sexual reproduction, or both.
Polyps generally perform asexual reproduction by budding, in which an outgrowth from the
body wall separates to form a new polyp or medusa. Medusae primarily reproduce sexually
they produce gametes (sex cells), and a gamete (sperm) from a male medusa fuses with
a gamete (egg) from a female medusa to form a zygote.
The zygote develops into a larva, which in turn develops into a polyp or medusa. The
medusae of some cnidarians may also form polyps by budding.
Class 1: Hydrozoa (Hydroids)

 It is slender and flexible, 10 to 30 mm (1/2 to in) long, with several delicate tentacle at
one end.
It lives in a cool, clean and usually permanent fresh water of lakes, ponds, and streams,
attaching to stones, sticks or aquatic vegetation.
Mouth opens directly into a digestive cavity that lacks partitions.
General Features
Basal Disk - used for attaching to objects and for locomotion.
The opposite and free oral end contains the mouth as a small opening on a conical
hypostome.
The mouth leads into the digestive cavity, or gastrovascular cavity, w/c occupies the
interior of the body and connects to the slender cavities in the tentacles.
The body may extend as a slender tube, may bend in any direction, or may contract to a
short spherical form.
The tentacle move independently or together and may extend as long as delicate threads
or contract down to slight knobs.
The side of the body may bear lateral buds.
at times, it bears other rounded projections, the ovaries or testes.
Cellular structure and Function
2 Cell Layers
A thin external EPIDERMIS that chiefly protective and sensory in function.
In inside, a thicker GASTRODERMIS, of tall cells, serving mainly in digestion.
Types of both layers
1. Epitheliomuscular
This are the principal part of the lining of the gastrovascular cavity and function actively in
the digestion of food.
2. Gland Cell
it secretes a sticky mucus by which hydras attached to objects in the water.
These cells can also produce gas bubbles.
3. Interstitial Cells
They have the potential to produce all other cell types, such as cnidocytes and gametes.
4. Cnidocytic
An specialized cell w/c contain the unique cnidarian stinging apparatus, the nematocyst.
5. Sensory Cells

 They are most numerous on the tentacle, about the mouth , and around the basal disk; a
small number occur in the gastrodermis.
Class 2: Scyphozoa (Jellyfishes)
Chiefly free-swimming medusae of bell or ambrella form, with strong 4- part- radial
symmetry; no velum; gastric tentacle about mouth; central gastrovascular.
Class 3: Anthozoa
In the Anthozoa class there is no medusa stage. An anthozoan polyp reproduces sexually,
although the polyps of some species also reproduce asexually. Asexual reproduction
results in a colony if the daughter polyps remain attached to one another. There are about
6,500 species of anthozoans, including corals, sea anemones, sea pens, and sea fans.
Subclasses of Anthozoa
1. Octocorallia (Alcyonaria)
has 8 pinnately branched tentacles and 8 single complete septa; one ventral
siphonoglyph; endoskeleton; colonial.
2. Hexacorallia (Zoantharia)
Tentacle few to many (never 8), simple, never pinnate.
Scientific classification: The phylum Cnidaria is made up of the classes Hydrozoa
(predominately polyps), Scyphozoa (primarily medusa), and Anthozoa (polyps only).

Jellyfish, common name for any of the invertebrate animals making up two classes of the
cnidarian phylum. About 2700 hydrozoan and 200 scyphozoan species are known. The
term jellyfish applies more specifically to the free-swimming, gelatinous organism called
the medusa, the form usually taken during the sexual stage of these animals, this
generation alternating with a bottom-dwelling polyp stage in which reproduction is
asexual.
Scientific classification: Jellyfish make up the classes Hydrozoa, with well-developed
polyps, and Scyphozoa, in which medusae predominate, of the phylum Cnidaria.