Lectures on Animalia and Related Phyla

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts related to the Kingdom Animalia and its related phyla, based on lecture notes.

Metazoa

Multicellular organisms categorized into two main groups: Parazoa and Eumetazoa.

Ctenophora

A phylum known as comb jellies, characterized by eight comb rows and two retractable tentacles.

Porifera

A phylum of simple aquatic animals commonly known as sponges, lacking true tissues.

Platyhelminthes

A phylum of flatworms known for being dorsoventrally flattened and possessing a simple body structure.

Trematoda

A class within Platyhelminthes that includes flukes, which are typically parasitic.

Cestoda

A class within Platyhelminthes consisting of tapeworms, characterized by a lack of a digestive tract.

Protonephridia

A network of tubules with flame cells that function in excretion and osmoregulation in flatworms.

Cephalization

The evolutionary trend where nervous tissue becomes concentrated at one end of the organism, forming a head.

Eumetazoa

A clade of animals with true tissues, further divided into Radiata (diploblastic) and Bilateria (triploblastic).

Parasitism

A symbiotic relationship where one organism (the parasite) benefits at the expense of another organism (the host).

Acoelomates

Organisms that lack a coelom, a body cavity between the digestive tract and the body wall.

Regeneration

A process in which certain organisms can regrow lost body parts, commonly seen in flatworms.

Germ layers

The primary layers of cells that develop during embryogenesis; includes ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm.

Eutely

A condition in which an organism has a fixed number of cells, typical in certain rotifers.

Symmetry

The balanced distribution of duplicate body parts or shapes; key types include bilateral and radial symmetry.