Classification of Animals

Classification of Animals:
Invertebrates
Invertebrate Animals
6th Grade Science

Animal Characteristics
Many-celled organisms sharing similar

features and that are made of different kinds
of cells.
Animal cells have a nucleus and organelles
surrounded by a membrane – EUKARYOTIC.
Cannot make their own food –
HETEROTROPHIC – digest their food.
Can move from place to place to find food,
shelter, and mates, and to escape from
predators.
Symmetry
Symmetry: arrangement of the

individual parts of an object
Radial: body parts arranged in a circle
around a central point
Bilateral: parts are mirror images of
each other
Asymmetrical: bodies cannot be divided
into matching halves
Symmetry
Animal Classification
Animal Kingdom
Invertebrates ( No Vertebrates (Backbone)
backbone)
Cnidarians Roundworms Annelids Echinoderms

Chordates
Sponges Flatworms Mollusks Arthropods
What is an Invertebrate?
Invertebrates are animals that do not have backbones.

97% of the animal kingdom is made up of
invertebrates.
Some can be found in ponds, oceans, and other water
environments.
Insects and some other invertebrates have exoskeletons.
An exoskeleton is a hard outer covering that
protects an animal’s body and gives it shape.
Porifera: Sponges
Porifera Characteristics
They live in water. (Most are found in the ocean.)

They look like plants but they are animals.
Sponges stay fixed in one place - SESSILE.
Their bodies are full of pores and their skeleton is
made of spiky fibers (spicules) or rubbery spongin
Sponges are divided into classes according to the
type of spicule they have – 5,000 species identified!
Water flows through the pores of their body, aided
by flagella, which enables them to catch food –
FILTER FEEDERS
Porifera Characteristics
Sponges can reproduce asexually through budding ~

GEMMULES; a new sponge grows from pieces of
an old sponge
Most sponges that reproduce sexually are
hermaphrodites, meaning they have both eggs and
sperm
Sperm is released into water
Sperm floats until they are drawn into another sponge
where they fertilize an egg
Larva develops in sponge, leaves sponge, and settles to
the bottom where it grows into an adult
Sponges
Cnidaria: Corals, Hydras, and Jellyfish
Cnidaria Characteristics
Cnidaria comes for the Greek word for nettle.

All cnidarians have stinging cells called
NEMATOCYSTS in tentacles surrounding their mouths.
Cnidarians are more complex than sponges.
They have complex tissues, a gut for digesting
food, and a nervous system.
They come in two body shapes, the medusa and the
polyp.
Polyp: usually sessile and vase-shaped
Medusa: free-swimming and bell-shaped
Cnidaria Characteristics
Cnidarians reproduce both sexually

and asexually
Polyp forms reproduce asexually by
budding
Some polyps also reproduce sexually be
releasing sperm or eggs
Medusa forms have a two-stage life
cycle in which they reproduce both
sexually and asexually
Sea Anenomes and Corals
They are polyps their entire life.
They look like brightly colored flowers.
They live in colonies.
They have soft tube-like bodies with a single
opening surrounded by arm-like parts called tentacles.
They feed by catching tiny animals in their tentacles.
Hydras
They live in fresh water.

They spend their entire
life as polyps.
Hydras have tentacles
that catch their food.
They move from place to
place.
Hydras are very small animals.
Reproduce asexually by budding.
Jellyfish
They spend most of

their life as medusa.
They swim.
Jellyfish catch
shrimp, fish, and
other animals in its
tentacles also.
Reproduces sexually to produce polyps; then each
polyp reproduces asexually to form new meduae.
Worms
Flatworms
Roundworms
Segmented Worms
Platyhelminthes: Flatworms
Search for their food; long, flattened bodies with organs
and systems
They have a head and a tail, and flattened bodies –
BILATERAL
Planaria – free-living
Tapeworms – parasitic; each segment (proglottid) contains
sperm and eggs (reproduce sexually) ~ when fertilized
eggs fill segment, it breaks off and passes out with wastes
of host – can be up to 80,000 eggs per segment!!!
Lack a digestive system and absorb nutrients from the host’s
intestine
Platyhelminthes: Flatworms
Nematoda: Roundworms
They have rounded bodies; body is a tube within a tube; I.e.,

digestive tract has both a mouth and an anus
They live in damp places and they can
also live inside humans and other animals.
Heartworm (Dirofilaria immitis) ~
Passed by mosquito bite
They too can make people and other animals sick.
Diets vary with some roundworms being decomposeers, some
predators, and some parasites
Most wide-spread animal on earth!
Billions can live in just one acre of soil!!!
Roundworms
Annelida: Segmented Worms
The earthworm (oligochaete), leech (hirudinea), and

marine worm (polychaete) belong to this group.
Their bodies are divided into repeating segments
Each segment has nerve cells, blood vessels, part of the
digestive tract, and the coelom (body cavity)
Closed circulatory system and complete digestive system with
two body openings
They prefer burrowing through moist soil.
This allows them to move easily and it keeps them from drying
out.
Earthworms – have more than 100

body segments
Use external bristle-like setae and
muscles to move
Eat organic material in soil
Exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen
through mucus-covered skin
Earthworm
Leeches
Have flat bodies with sucking disks at
both ends
Can store enormous amounts of food for
months
Secrete heparin,
which prevents
blood from clotting
Marine worms – use bristles or setae

for moving
Some are filter feeders
Some eat plants or rotting material
Some are predators or parasites
Mollusca: Octopi, Squid, Slugs,
Snails, and Bivalves

A mollusk has a soft body usually covered by a hard shell, a
rough tongue (radula), a muscular foot, and a mantle (thin
layer of tissue that covers the mollusk’s soft body and
secretes the shell).
Aquatic mollusks have gills for gas exchange; land
mollusks have lungs
A snail is a mollusk with a single hard shell.
A clam has two shells joined together by a hinge.
Squids and octopi are also mollusks.
Their hard shells are small, but they are inside their bodies.
Characteristics of Mollusks
Mantle: tissue that covers a mollusk’s soft

body and that may produce a shell
Lungs or gills: exchange carbon dioxide from
the animal for oxygen in the air or water
Many mollusks use a radula, a scratchy
tongue-like organ, to help them eat
Some have an open circulatory system which
washed blood over organs and lacks blood
vessels
Types of Mollusks
Gastropods – most have one shell

Live in water or on land
Move by gliding their large muscular foot
along a trail of mucus
Gastropods: Slugs and Snails
Types of Mollusks
Bivalves – have two shells

Large muscles open and close shell halves
Water animals that filter feed
Use gills to remove foot from
water
Bivalves: Clams and other two-
shelled shellfish
Types of Mollusks
Cephalopods – have no external shell

Have a foot divided into tentacles with
suckers
Move by using a mantle to quickly
squeeze water through a funnel-like
siphon
Have a closed circulatory system with
blood vessels
Cephalopods: Octopi and Squid
Arthropoda: Insects, Spiders,
Ticks, Mites, Centipedes,
Millipedes, Crustaceans
Arthropoda Characteristics
Arthropods are a group of invertebrates with

jointed appendages, such as claws, legs, and antennae, and a
hard exoskeleton that protects the arthropod; also have
bilateral symmetry.
More than a million species of arthropods have been
discovered!!
As it grows, it molts, or sheds its old exoskeleton.
Then it grows a new exoskeleton that allows its body to
continue to grow.
The largest group of arthropods are insects.
They are the only invertebrates that can fly!
Insect Characteristics
Insects have adapted to living almost everywhere! Over

700,000 species have been classified….so far!!
An insect’s body has 3 parts: the head, thorax, and abdomen.
The head has one pair of antennae and two compound eyes ~
well- developed sense organs.
Thorax has three pairs of jointed legs and usually one or two
pairs of wings.
Reproductive organs are located in abdomen.
Open circulatory system; oxygen enters through openings on
sides called spiracles
Insect Metamorphosis
Complete Metamorphosis
Insect Metamorphosis
• Incomplete Metamorphosis
Arachnids: Spiders, Scorpions,
Ticks, and Mites
• They have 2 main
body parts: a cephalothorax
and an abdomen
• The thorax has
4 pairs of jointed legs; no antennae.
• They do have special
mouth parts like fangs.
• They kill more insect
pests than any other animal.
Myriapods: Centipedes and
Millipedes
• Centipedes use their
many legs to run
from enemies (one pair of
jointed legs attached to each segment).
– Predators.
• Millipedes roll up
their bodies when
they sense danger approaching (two pairs of jointed legs
attached to each segment).
– Feed on plants.
Crustaceans: Shrimp, Barnacles,
Crab, Crayfish, and Lobster
• Almost all crustaceans are
aquatic & have gills.
• All have 2 pairs of
antennae, three types of
chewing appendages, and
five pairs of legs.
Echinodermata: Starfish and Sea Urchins
• Belongs to a group of invertebrates that

have tiny tube feet and body parts arranged
around a central area.
• A starfish has five arms and no head!
• The hard, spiny covering of the starfish
gives the animal protection.
• A sea urchin belongs to this same group.
• Its body is covered with spines.
Echinodermata…
• Radial symmetry
• Diets vary ~ predators, filter feeders,
some eat rotting material
• Spiny skin covering an internal skeleton of
plates
• Water-vascular system to help them move
and eat
• Some can reproduce through regeneration
from parts.
Starfish
Sea Urchins

Classification of Animals

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Classification of Animals:

6th Grade Science

Many-celled organisms sharing similar

Symmetry: arrangement of the

Cnidarians Roundworms Annelids Echinoderms

Invertebrates are animals that do not have backbones.

They live in water. (Most are found in the ocean.)

Sponges can reproduce asexually through budding ~

Cnidaria comes for the Greek word for nettle.

Cnidarians reproduce both sexually

They live in fresh water.

They spend most of

They have rounded bodies; body is a tube within a tube; I.e.,

The earthworm (oligochaete), leech (hirudinea), and

Earthworms – have more than 100

Marine worms – use bristles or setae

Snails, and Bivalves

Mantle: tissue that covers a mollusk’s soft

Gastropods – most have one shell

Bivalves – have two shells

Cephalopods – have no external shell

Arthropods are a group of invertebrates with

Insects have adapted to living almost everywhere! Over

• Belongs to a group of invertebrates that

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