Invertebrate Animal Flashcards
Vertebrates
an animal of a large group group distinguished by the possession of a backbone or spinal column, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes.
Invertebrates
an animal lacking a backbone, such as an arthropod, mollusk, annelid, coelenterate, etc. The invertebrates constitute an artificial division of the animal kingdom, comprising 95 percent of animal species and about 30 different phyla.
Consumer
An organism that generally obtains food by feeding on other organisms or organic matter due to lack of the ability to manufacture own food from inorganic sources; a heterotroph.
Ganglion
a structure containing a number of nerve cell bodies, typically linked by synapses, and often forming a swelling on a nerve fiber.
Gut
the stomach or tummy
Coelom
the body cavity in metazoans, located between the intestinal canal and the body wall.
bilateral symmetry
bilateral symmetry
Radial Symmetry
symmetry around a central axis, as in a starfish or a tulip flower.
asymmetry
lack of equality or equivalence between parts or aspects of something; lack of symmetry.
Sponges
a primitive sedentary aquatic invertebrate with a soft porous body that is typically supported by a framework of fibers or calcareous or glassy spicules. Sponges draw in a current of water to extract nutrients and oxygen.
Cnidarians
an aquatic invertebrate animal of the phylum Cnidaria, which comprises the coelenterates.
Flatworms
a worm of a phylum that includes the planarians together with the parasitic flukes and tapeworms. They are distinguished by having a simple flattened body that lacks blood vessels, and a digestive tract that, if present, has a single opening.
Roundworms
a nematode, especially a parasitic one found in the intestines of mammals.
Mollusks
an invertebrate of a large phylum that includes snails, slugs, mussels, and octopuses. They have a soft, unsegmented body and live in aquatic or damp habitats, and most kinds have an external calcareous shell.
