Arthropod

animal phylum

Arthropod, (phylum Arthropoda), any member of the phylum Arthropoda, the

largest phylum in the animal kingdom, which includes such familiar forms
as lobsters, crabs, spiders, mites, insects, centipedes, and millipedes. About 84
percent of all known species of animals are members of this phylum. Arthropods
are represented in every habitat on Earth and show a great variety of adaptations.
Several types live in aquatic environments, and others reside in terrestrial ones;
some groups are even adapted for flight.

Spiny lobster Wasp spider

Spiny lobster, or rock lobster (Palinurus Wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi), a
elephas) species of orb-weaver spider

Centipede Butterfly
Centipede (genus Scolopendra). Palaechrysophanus hippothoe, an
iridescent butterfly.

The distinguishing feature of arthropods is the presence of a jointed skeletal

covering composed of chitin (a complex sugar) bound to protein. This nonliving
exoskeleton is secreted by the underlying epidermis (which corresponds to the
skin of other animals). Arthropods lack locomotory cilia, even in the larval stages,
probably because of the presence of the exoskeleton. The body is usually
segmented, and the segments bear paired jointed appendages, from which the
name arthropod (“jointed feet”) is derived. About one million arthropod species
 have been described, of which most are insects. This number, however, may be
only a fraction of the total. Based on the number of undescribed species collected
from the treetops of tropical forests, zoologists have estimated the total number
of insect species alone to be as high as 5.5 million. The more than 48,000
described species of mites may also represent only a fraction of the existing
number.

The phylum Arthropoda is commonly divided into four subphyla of extant forms:

Chelicerata (arachnids), Crustacea (crustaceans), Hexapoda
(insects and springtails), and Myriapoda (millipedes and centipedes). Some
zoologists believe that arthropods possessing only single-branched appendages,
particularly the insects, centipedes, and millipedes, evolved from a separate
ancestor and therefore group them within a separate phylum—the Uniramia, or
Atelocerata; however, in this treatment these forms are dispersed among several
subphyla. In addition, the phylum Arthropoda contains the extinct
subphylum Trilobitomorpha. This group is made up of the trilobites, the
dominant arthropods in the early Paleozoic seas (541.0 million to 251.9 million
years ago). Trilobites became extinct during the Permian Period (298.9 million to
251.9 million years ago) at the end of the Paleozoic Era.

The myriapods (centipedes, symphylans, millipedes, and pauropods) live beneath

stones and logs and in leaf mold; insects are found in all types of terrestrial
habitats and some have invaded fresh water. The sea has remained the domain of
the crustaceans, however, and only at its very edges are insects (subphylum
Hexapoda) found.

Millipede
A South African millipede

The subphylum Crustacea contains mostly marine arthropods, though many of

its members, such as the crayfish, have invaded fresh water, and one group, the
pill bugs (sow bugs), has become terrestrial, living beneath stones and logs and in
leaf mold. In the sea, large crustaceans such as crabs and shrimps are common
bottom-dwelling arthropods. Many minute species of crustaceans (particularly
the copepods) are an important component of the zooplankton (floating or
weakly swimming animals) and serve as food for other invertebrates, fishes, and
even whales.
 Pill bugs Crayfish
Pill bugs (Armadillidium vulgare). Crayfish in a freshwater aquarium

Most members of the subphylum Chelicerata belong to the class Arachnida,

containing the spiders, scorpions, ticks, and mites. They are largely terrestrial
arthropods, living beneath stones and logs, in leaf mold, and in vegetation, but
there are some aquatic mites that live in fresh water and in the sea. There are also
many parasitic mites. Two small classes of chelicerates, the Merostomata,
containing the horseshoe crabs, and the Pycnogonida, containing the sea spiders,
are entirely marine. The merostomes are an ancient group and probably gave rise
to the arachnids. Indeed, the earliest known fossil scorpions were aquatic.

Scorpion
Scorpion.

Horseshoe crab
The horseshoe crab (genus Limulus) has compound eyes that appear to
have evolved independently from the trilobites and the myriapods. It is
thought that the single-chambered eyes of spiders and scorpions are
descended from chelicerates such as Limulus.
 General Features
Size range

Most arthropods are small animals. Only aquatic forms are able to attain
substantial sizes, because their bodies are supported in part by the surrounding
water. The extinct chelicerate Eurypterida, for example, reached a length of 1.8
metres (5.9 feet), and some modern spider crabs may weigh up to 6.4 kilograms
(14 pounds) and span 3.8 metres or more. Terrestrial arthropods do not grow
very large. The largest adult insects and spiders do not weigh more than 100
grams (0.22 pound); however, there is evidence that larvae of Megasoma
actaeon, a type of rhinoceros beetle, can sometimes exceed 200 grams (0.44
pound). The beetle Goliathus regius measures 15 centimetres (5.9 inches) in
length and 10 centimetres in width, while the butterfly Ornithoptera victoriae of
the Solomon Islands has a wing span exceeding 30 centimetres (about 1 foot).
One of the longest insects is the phasmid (walkingstick) Phryganistria chinensis,
a specimen of which measured 62.4 centimetres (about 2 feet) in length. The
phasmid Phobaeticus chani reaches a length of more than 30 centimetres. The
smallest arthropods include some parasitic wasps, beetles of the family Ptiliidae,
and mites that are less than 0.25 millimetre (0.01 inch) in length, despite their
complex structures.

Insect diversity
Insect diversity.
Spider crab
Spider crab (Libinia).

Distribution and Abundance

Arthropods are found in almost all of the habitats that cover the Earth’s surface.
Minute copepods (typically less than 1 millimetre long) are among the most
abundant animals on Earth, especially in marine surface waters. Many
other crustaceans live in the sea at depths exceeding 4,000 metres (around
13,100 feet), while the insect collembolans and jumping spiders have been found
on Mount Everest at heights exceeding 6,700 metres (around 22,000 feet).
Collembolans and the oribatid mites are among the permanent inhabitants
of Antarctica. Brine shrimp are found in some saltwater lakes, and beetles, mites,
and various crustaceans have been taken from hot springs. Minute crustaceans
inhabit underground waters in many parts of the world, and deserts support a
large arthropod fauna, especially insects and arachnids. Arthropods are the only
invertebrates capable of flight.

Copepod
Marine copepod, an abundant type of arthropod that lives as
zooplankton.

The numbers and diversity of arthropods are enormous. A bag filled with leaf
mold from a forest floor, for example, will contain hundreds of arthropods,
including mites, spiders, false scorpions, myriapods, a great variety of insects,
and crustacean pill bugs. In the spring a temporary pool often teems with minute
crustaceans.

Acarid; rust mite

Scanning electron micrograph of a rust mite (Aceria
anthocoptes).
 Importance

Arthropods are of great direct and indirect importance to humans. The larger
crustaceans—shrimps, lobsters, and crabs—are used as food throughout the
world. Small planktonic crustaceans, such as copepods, water fleas, and krill, are
a major link in the food chain between the photosynthetic phytoplankton and the
larger carnivores, such as many fish and whales. Although many species of
insects and mites attack food crops and timber, arthropods are of enormous
benefit to human agriculture. Approximately two-thirds of all flowering plants
are pollinated by insects, and soil and leaf-mold arthropods, which include
insects, mites, myriapods, and some crustaceans (pill bugs), play an important
role in the formation of humus from decomposed leaf litter and wood.

Krill
Euphausiids, or krill, are shrimplike marine arthropods
that live in the open sea.

The stings and bites of arthropods may be irritating or painful, but very few inject
dangerous toxins. Medically, arthropods are more significant as carriers
of diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, dengue,
and elephantiasis (via mosquitos), African sleeping sickness (via tsetse
flies), typhus fever (via lice), bubonic plague (via fleas), and Rocky Mountain
spotted fever and Lyme disease (via ticks). Many diseases of domesticated
animals are also transmitted by arthropods
 Mosquito
A yellow fever mosquito (Aedes aegypti) sucking human
blood.

Form And Function

 The exoskeleton and molting

The success of arthropods derives in large part from the evolution of their unique,
nonliving, organic, jointed exoskeleton (see figure), which not only functions in
support but also provides protection and, with the muscle system, contributes to
efficient locomotion. The exoskeleton is composed of a thin, outer protein layer,
the epicuticle, and a thick, inner, chitin–protein layer, the procuticle. In most
terrestrial arthropods, such as insects and spiders, the epicuticle contains waxes
that aid in reducing evaporative water loss. The procuticle consists of an
outer exocuticle and an inner endocuticle. In the exocuticle there is cross-
bonding of the chitin–protein chains (tanning), which provides additional
strength to the skeletal material. The hardness of various parts of the exoskeleton
in different arthropods is related to the thickness and degree of tanning of the
exocuticle. In crustaceans, additional rigidity is achieved by having the
exoskeleton impregnated with varying amounts of calcium carbonate .

arthropod integument
Diagrammatic section through the arthropod integument.

Molting
Grasshopper shedding its exoskeleton.

Molting is under hormonal control, and there is a long preparatory phase that
precedes the process. The steroid hormone ecdysone, secreted by specific
endocrine centres and circulated in the blood, is the direct initiator of molting.
 The actual timing of a molt, however, is regulated by other hormones and
commonly by environmental factors. The interval between molts is called
an instar. Because of the frequency of molts, instars are short early in life but
grow longer with increasing age. Some arthropods, such as most spiders and
insects, stop molting when they reach sexual maturity; others, like lobsters and
crabs, molt throughout their lives. Most of the larger spiders of temperate
regions, for example, molt about 10 times before reaching sexual maturity. As a
result of molting, the length and volume of an arthropod display steplike
increases over the life span, but internal tissue growth is continual as in other
animals

Loss of a limb is a common hazard in the life of many arthropods. Indeed, some
arthropods, such as crabs, are capable of amputating an appendage if it is seized
by a predator. The limb is then regenerated from a small, nipplelike rudiment
formed at the site of the lost limb. The new limb develops beneath the old
exoskeleton during the premolt period and then appears when the animal molts.

Muscles, appendages, and locomotion
Arthropods are unusual among invertebrates; they lack locomotory cilia, even
as larvae. The problem that a rigid external covering imposes on movement has
been solved by having the exoskeleton divided into plates over the body and
through a series of cylinders around the appendages. At the junction, or joints,
between the plates and cylinders the exoskeleton is thin and flexible because it
lacks the exocuticle and because it is folded. The folds provide additional surface
area as the joints are bent. The arthropod’s exoskeleton is therefore
somewhat analogous to the armour encasing a medieval knight.

Trilobites, Subphylum Trilobita

By
Debbie Hadley
 Updated March 24, 2020

Though they only remain as fossils, the marine creatures called trilobites filled
the seas during the Paleozoic era. Today, these ancient arthropods are found in
abundance in Cambrian rocks. The name trilobite comes from the Greek
words tri meaning three, and lobita meaning lobed. The name refers to the three
distinct longitudinal regions of the trilobite body.

Classification
Trilobites belong to the phylum Arthropoda. They share the characteristics of
arthropods with other members of the phylum, including insects, arachnids,
crustaceans, millipedes, centipedes, and horseshoe crabs. Within the phylum, the
classification of arthropods is a subject of some debate. For the purpose of this
article, we will follow the classification scheme published in Borror and
DeLong's Introduction to the Study of Insects, and place the trilobites in their
own subphylum – the Trilobita.

Description
Although several thousand species of trilobites have been identified from
the fossil record, most can be easily recognized as trilobites. Their bodies are
somewhat ovoid in shape and slightly convex. The trilobite body is divided
lengthwise into three regions: an axial lobe at the center, and a pleural
lobe on each side of the axial lobe (see image above). Trilobites were the first
arthropods to secrete hardened, calcite exoskeletons, which is why they've left
behind such a rich inventory of fossils. Living trilobites had legs, but their legs
were comprised of soft tissue, and so were only rarely preserved in fossil form.
The few complete trilobite fossils found have revealed that trilobite appendages
were often biramous, bearing both a leg for locomotion and a feathery gill,
presumably for breathing.
The head region of the trilobite is called the cephalon. A pair
of antennae extended from the cephalon. Some trilobites were blind, but those
with vision often had
conspicuous, well-formed eyes. Strangely, trilobite eyes were made not of
organic, soft tissue, but of inorganic calcite, just like the rest of the exoskeleton.
Trilobites were the first organisms with compound eyes (though some sighted
species had only simple eyes}. The lenses of each compound eye were formed
from hexagonal calcite crystals, which allowed light to pass through. Facial
sutures enabled the growing trilobite to break free from its exoskeleton during
the molting process.
The midsection of the trilobite body, just behind the cephalon, is called the
thorax. These thoracic segments were articulated, enabling some trilobites to curl
or roll up much like a modern-day pillbug. The trilobite likely used this ability to
defend itself from predators. The hind or tail end of the trilobite is known as
the pygidium. Depending on the species, the pygidium might consist of a single
segment, or of many (perhaps 30 or more). Segments of the pygidium were fused,
making the tail rigid.

Diet
Since trilobites were marine creatures, their diet consisted of other marine life.
Pelagic trilobites could swim, though probably not very fast, and likely fed on
plankton. The larger pelagic trilobites may have preyed on crustaceans or other
marine organisms they encountered. Most trilobites were bottom-dwellers and
probably scavenged dead and decaying matter from the seafloor.
Some benthic trilobites probably disturbed the sediments so they could filter feed
on edible particles. Fossil evidence shows some trilobites plowed through the
seafloor, searching for prey. Trace fossils of trilobite tracks show these hunters
were able to pursue and capture marine worms.

Life History
Trilobites were among the earliest arthropods to inhabit the planet, based on
fossil specimens dating back nearly 600 million years. They lived entirely during
the Paleozoic era but were most abundant during the first 100 million years of
this era (in the Cambrian and Ordovician periods, specifically). Within a mere
270 million years, the trilobites were gone, having gradually declined and finally
disappeared just as the Permian period drew to a close

Morphology
When trilobites are found, only the exoskeleton is preserved (often in an incomplete state) in
all but a handful of locations. A few locations (Lagerstätten) preserve identifiable soft body
parts (legs, gills, musculature & digestive tract) and enigmatic traces of other structures (e.g.
fine details of eye structure) as well as the exoskeleton.
Trilobites range in length from minute (less than 3 millimetres (0.12 in)) to very large (over 30
centimetres (12 in)), with an average size range of 3–10 cm (1.2–3.9 in). Supposedly the
smallest species is Acanthopleurella stipulae with a maximum of 1.5 millimetres (0.059 in).
[64]
 The world's largest-known trilobite specimen, assigned to Isotelus rex of 72 cm, was found
in 1998 by Canadian scientists in Ordovician rocks on the shores of Hudson Bay.[29] A trilobite
specimen found in 2009 in Arouca, Portugal is said to measure 86.5 cm (34.1 in).[65][66]
The trilobite body is divided into three major sections (tagmata): 1 – cephalon; 2 – thorax; 3 – pygidium.
Trilobites are so named for the three longitudinal lobes: 4 – right pleural lobe; 5 – axial lobe; 6 – left
pleural lobe; the antennae and legs are not shown in these diagrams
The exoskeleton is composed of calcite and calcium phosphate minerals in a lattice
of chitin[67] that covers the upper surface (dorsal) of the trilobite and curled round the lower
edge to produce a small fringe called the "doublure".Three distinctive tagmata (sections) are
present: cephalon (head); thorax (body) and pygidium (tail).
 Phylum Arthropoda, Subphylum Chelicerata

Common name: chelicerates, arachnids

Chelicerata is a division within the Arthropoda, containing animals such
as spiders, scorpions, harvestmen, mites and ticks. Like all arthropods,
they have a segmented body and segmented limbs and a thick chitinous
cuticle called an exoskeleton. Chelicerates have two body segments; a
cephalothorax and an abdomen. They have no antennae, but have six
pairs of appendages. The most anterior appendages are called the
chelicerae and are normally modified into pincers or fangs. The following
pair, the pedipalps, are also commonly modified. The posterior four pairs
of appendages are normally used for walking. Other than the marine
horseshoe crabs, the Chelicerata are found primarily in terrestrial
environments worldwide. Around 8,000 described species are found in
Australia, with approximately 80,000 recognised species worldwide. The
only class within Chelicerata which is not entirely marine is the
Arachnida. The arachnids are grouped into ten orders, the Scorpiones
(scorpions), the Pseudoscorpiones (pseudoscorpions), the Araneae
(spiders), the Amblypygi (whip-spiders), the Shizomida (schizomids), the
Palpigradi (palpigrades), the Opiliones (harvestmen), and three groups of
mites and ticks: Opilioacariformes, Acariformes and Parasitiformes.

Araneae - Idiomatta sp. male

Araneae - Peacock spider