EUBACTERIA Agrobacterium Agrobacterium is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria that uses horizontal gene transfer to cause tumors in plants. Agrobacterium tumefaciens is the most commonly studied species in this genus. Agrobacterium is well known for its ability to transfer DNA between itself and plants, and for this reason it has become an important tool for genetic engineering.

A. tumefaciens causes crown-gall disease in plants. The disease is characterised by a tumour-like growth or gall on the infected plant, often at the junction between the root and the shoot. Tumors are incited by the conjugative transfer of a DNA segment (T-DNA) from the bacterial tumour-inducing (Ti) plasmid.

Escherichia Escherichia is a genus of Gram-negative, nonspore forming, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacteria. In those species which are inhabitants of the gastrointestinal tracts of warm-blooded animals, Escherichia species provide a portion of the microbially derived vitamin K for their host. A number of the species of Escherichia are pathogenic.

While many Escherichia are commensal gut flora, particular strains of some species are known as the most common cause of urinary tract infections, significant sources of gastrointestinal disease, ranging from simple diarrhea to dysentery-like conditions.

Rhizobium Rhizobium is a genus of Gram-negative soil bacteria that fix nitrogen. Rhizobium species form an endosymbiotic nitrogen-fixing association with roots of legumes.

The bacteria colonize plant cells within root nodules, where they convert atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia and then provide organic nitrogenous compounds such as glutamine or ureides to the plant. The plant, in turn, provides the bacteria with organic compounds made by photosynthesis. Thus, it acts as a natural fertilizer for the plants.

Salmonella Salmonella is a genus of rod-shaped (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the Enterobacteriaceae family.

S. enterica subspecies are found worldwide in all warm-blooded animals, and in the environment. S. bongori is

restricted to cold-blooded animals, particularly reptiles. Strains of Salmonella cause illnesses such as typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, and food poisoning (salmonellosis).

Anabaena Anabaena is a genus of filamentous cyanobacteria that exist as plankton. They are known for nitrogen-fixing abilities, and they form symbiotic relationships with certain plants, such as the mosquito fern. They are one of four genera of cyanobacteria that produce neurotoxins, which are harmful to local wildlife, as well as farm animals and pets. Production of these neurotoxins is assumed to be an input into its symbiotic relationships, protecting the plant from grazing pressure.

They have heterocysts, which convert nitrogen into ammonia. Certain species of Anabaena have been used on rice paddy fields, proving to be an effective natural fertilizer.

Under nitrogen-limiting conditions, vegetative cells differentiate into heterocysts at semiregular intervals along the filaments. Heterocyst cells are terminally specialized for nitrogen fixation. The interior of these cells is micro- oxic as a result of increased respiration, inactivation of O2-producing photosystem (PS) II, and formation of a thickened envelope outside of the cell wall. Nitrogenase, sequestered within these cells, transforms dinitrogen into ammonium at the expense of ATP and reductant—both generated by carbohydrate metabolism, a process supplemented, in the light, by the activity of PS I. Carbohydrate, probably in the form of glucose, is synthesized in vegetative cells and moves into heterocysts. In return, nitrogen fixed in heterocysts moves into the vegetative cells, at least in part in the form of amino acids.

Bacillus Gram‐positive, rod shaped, obligate or facultative aerobes, produce dormant endospores (dehydrated thick membrane enclosed shells) when under stress (anthrax).

Streptomyces Streptomycetes are Gram-positive, and have genomes with high GC content. Found predominantly in soil and decaying vegetation, most streptomycetes produce spores, and are noted for their distinct "earthy" odor that results from production of a volatile metabolite, geosmin.

Streptomycetes are characterised by a complex secondary metabolism. They produce over two-thirds of the clinically useful antibiotics of natural origin (e.g., neomycin, cypemycin, grisemycin, bottromycins and chloramphenicol). Streptomycetes are infrequent pathogens, though infections in humans, such as mycetoma, can be caused.

Thermus Thermus is a genus of thermophilic bacteria.

ARCHAEA Methanobacterium Anaerobic, non‐motile, use carbon dioxide to oxidize hydrogen gas to make methane, rod shaped, found in the GI tract of herbivores.

Halobacterium The genus Halobacterium ("salt" or "ocean bacterium") consists of several species of the Archaea with an aerobic metabolism which requires an environment with a high concentration of salt; many of their proteins will not function in low-salt environments. They grow on amino acids in their aerobic conditions. Their cell walls are also quite different from those of bacteria, as ordinary lipoprotein membranes fail in high salt concentrations.

They reproduce using binary fission (by constriction), and are motile.

Thermoplasm Thermoplasma is a genus of archaea. It belongs to the Thermoplasmata, which thrive in acidic and high- temperature environments. Thermoplasma are facultative anaerobes and respire using sulfur and organic carbon.

They do not contain a cell wall but instead contain a unique membrane composed mainly of a tetraether lipoglycan containing atypical archaeal tetraether lipid attached to a glucose- and mannose-containing oligosaccharide. This lipoglycan is presumably responsible for the acid and thermal stability of the Thermoplasma membrane.

Sulfolobus Sulfolobus species grow in volcanic springs with optimal growth occurring at pH 2-3 and temperatures of 75-80 °C, making them acidophiles and thermophiles respectively. Sulfolobus cells are irregularly shaped and flagellar.

EUKARYA PROTISTA Euglenozoa Euglena Euglena is a genus of single-celled flagellate Eukaryotes. Species of Euglena are found in fresh and salt waters.

Most species of Euglena have photosynthesizing chloroplasts within the body of the cell, which enable them to feed by autotrophy, like plants. However, they can also take nourishment heterotrophically, like animals. Thus, they are mixotrophs.

They possess chloroplasts through secondary endosymbiosis of green algae (thus their chloroplasts have three membranes).

No cell wall, but pellicle made of proteins.

Pyrenoids store paramylon (carbohydrate similar to starch).

It has a crystalline rod in the flagella.

Trypanosoma Trypanosoma is a genus of kinetoplastids (class Kinetoplastida), a group of unicellular, parasitic, flagellate protozoa. Most trypanosomes are heteroxenous (requiring more than one obligatory host to complete life cycle) and most are transmitted via a vector. The majority of species are transmitted by blood-feeding invertebrates, but there are different mechanisms among the varying species. In an invertebrate host, they are generally found in the intestine, but normally occupy the bloodstream or an intracellular environment in the mammalian host.

The mitochondrial genome of the Trypanosoma, as well as of other kinetoplastids, known as the kinetoplast, is made up of a highly complex series of catenated circles and minicircles and requires a cohort of proteins for organisation during cell division.

Stramenopiles Paheophyta (Brown Algae) Sargasum Any number of the normally benthic species may take on a planktonic, often pelagic existence after being removed from reefs during rough weather.

Possess xanthophyll called fucoxanthin, giving distinctive color.

Body called a thallus with holdfast “root” and stipe “Stem”.

Pneumatocysts provide buoyancy.

Bacillariophyta (Diatoms) Diatoma Diatoms are a major group of algae, and are among the most common types of phytoplankton. Diatoms are unicellular, although they can form colonies in the shape of filaments or ribbons. Diatoms are producers within the food chain.

A unique feature of diatom cells is that they are enclosed within a cell wall made of silica (hydrated silicon dioxide) called a frustule.

Only male gametes of centric diatoms are capable of movement by means of flagella. Diatom communities are a popular tool for monitoring environmental conditions, past and present, and are commonly used in studies of water quality.

Sexual reproduction involves the formation of an auxospore.

Four‐membraned chloroplasts (all stremenophiles).

Alveolates Apicomplexa Plasmodium While a large portion of the apicomplexans are known parasites of virtually all vertebrates including humans, they are equally diverse in both marine and terrestrial invertebrates.

The apicoplast is a remnant non- photosynthetic plastid characteristic of apicomplexans consisting of a 35kb circular genome.

The basic life cycle of the

apicomplexan parasite is typically complicated. Generally, there are four transformations to complete the cycle:

the zygote, a sporozoite, a merozoite, and a gametic stages. The typical lifecycle of apicomplexa is well established as they all undergo a series of asexual and sexual reproduction involving either one or two hosts whereby a diploid zygote is formed by the union of gametes. It then undergoes a meiotic division to form infective haploid sporozoites. Within the body, sporozoites are thought to target specific cells by the use of a range of molecular armaments which include surface adhesions such as parasite surface proteins and binding antigens to enter host cells.

The sporozoites then transform to form merozoites within the host cells, followed by several additional generations of asexual division to produce more merozoites and eventually sexual gametes are produced leading to fertilization and the production of a diploid zygote followed by formation of infective diploid sporozoites.

Ciliates Paramecium Unicellular cells. Paramecia are widespread in freshwater, brackish, and marine environments.

Cells are typically ovoid, elongate, foot- or cigar-shaped. The body of the cell is enclosed by a stiff but elastic membrane (pellicle), uniformly covered with simple cilia, hairlike

Paramecium reproduces asexually, by organelles which act like tiny oars to binary fission. During reproduction, the move the organism in one direction. macronucleus splits by a type of Nearly all species have closely spaced amitosis, and the micronuclei undergo spindle-shaped trichocysts embedded mitosis. The cell then divides deeply in the cellular envelope transversally, and each new cell obtains a (cortex) that surrounds the organism. copy of the micronucleus and the Typically, an anal pore (cytoproct) is macronucleus. located on the ventral surface, in the posterior half of the cell. In all species, During conjugation, the micronuclei of there is a deep oral groove running each conjugant divide by meiosis and the from the anterior of the cell to its haploid gametes pass from one cell to the midpoint. other. The gametes of each organism then fuse to form diploid micronuclei. Paramecia live mainly by The old macronuclei are destroyed, and heterotrophy, feeding on bacteria and new ones are developed from the new other small organisms. A few species micronuclei. Autogamy or conjugation are mixotrophs, deriving some can be induced by shortage of food. nutrients from endosymbiontic algae (chlorella) carried in the cytoplasm of Like all ciliates, Paramecium has a dual the cell. nuclear apparatus, consisting of a polyploid macronucleus, and one or more Osmoregulation is carried out by diploid micronuclei. The macronucleus contractile vacuoles, which actively controls non-reproductive cell functions, expel water from the cell to expressing the genes needed for daily compensate for fluid absorbed by functioning. The micronucleus is the osmosis from its surroundings. generative, or germline nucleus, containing the genetic material that is passed along from one generation to the next.

Dinoflagellates Ceratium Dinoflagellates are common organisms in all types of aquatic ecosystems. Roughly half of the species in the group are photosynthetic, the other half is exclusively heterotrophic and feeds via osmotrophy and phagotrophy.

Dinoflagellates are perhaps best known as causers of harmful algal blooms. About 75-80% of toxic phytoplankton species are dinoflagellates, and they cause “red tides” that often kill fish and/or shellfish either directly, because of toxin production, or because of effects caused by large numbers of cells that clog animal gills, deplete oxygen, etc.

They are second only to diatoms as marine primary producers. As phagotrophic organisms they are also important components of the microbial loop in the oceans and help channel significant amounts of energy into planktonic food webs. As zooxanthellae, dinoflagellates have a pivotal role in the biology of reef- building corals.

Motile cells possess two dissimilar flagella arising from the ventral cell side = dinokont flagellation.

Cells can be athecate (naked) or thecate (posses a wall). In athecate species the vesicles are either empty or contain amorphous material. In walled dinoflagellates, close-fitting cellulosic plates - which together form the theca - are contained within the alveolae, one per vesicle.

Photosynthetic pigments include chlorophylls a and c2 as well as peridinin (a type of carotenoid only found in dinoflagellates), b-carotene, small amounts of diadinoxanthin and dinoxanthin.

Rhodophyta (Red Algae) Chondrus Red algae are ecologically significant as primary producers, providers of structural habitat for other marine organisms, and their important role in the primary establishment and maintenance of coral reefs. Some red algae are economically important as providers of food and gels.

Red algae have a number of general characteristics that in combination distinguish them from other eukaryotic groups:

• absence of flagella and centrioles

• floridean starch as a storage product and the storage of starch in the cytoplasm • phycoerythrin, phycocyanin, and allophycocyanin as accessory pigments unstacked thylakoids in plastids

Chlorophyta Chlorophyceae Chalmydomonas Chlamydomonas is a genus of green (Green Algae) algae consisting of unicellular flagellates, found in stagnant water and on damp soil, in freshwater, seawater, and even in snow as "snow algae".

One of the many striking features of Chlamydomonas is that it contains ion channels, (channelrhodopsins), that are directly activated by light.

• Motile unicellular algae. • Generally oval in shape.

• Cell wall is made up of glycoprotein and non cellulosic polysaccharides instead of cellulose. • Two anteriorly inserted whiplash flagella. Flagella originates from a basal granule located in the anterior papillate or non-papillate region of the cytoplasm. • Contractile vacuoles found at near the bases of flagella. • Prominent cup or bowl-shaped chloroplast is present. The chloroplast contains bands composed of a variable number of the photosynthetic thylakoids which are not organised into grana-like structures. • The nucleus is enclosed in a cup-shaped chloroplast, which has a single large pyrenoid where starch is formed from photosynthetic products. • Eye spot (stigma) present in the anterior portion of the chloroplast.

Zygnematales Spirogyra Spirogyra (common names include water silk, mermaid's tresses, and blanket weed) is a genus of filamentous charophyte green algae of the order Zygnematales, named for the helical or spiral arrangement of the chloroplasts that is diagnostic of the genus. It is commonly found in freshwater areas. Spirogyra is very common in relatively clean eutrophic water, developing slimy filamentous green masses. Charales Chara They are multicellular and superficially resemble land plants because of stem-like and leaf-like structures. They are found in fresh water, particularly in limestone areas throughout the northern temperate zone, where they grow submerged, attached to the muddy bottom. They prefer less oxygenated and hard water and are not found in waters where mosquito larvae are present.

They are covered with calcium carbonate deposits and are commonly known as stoneworts. Cyanobacteria have been found growing as epiphytes on the surfaces of Chara, where they may be involved in fixing nitrogen, which is important to plant nutrition. Embryophytes Bryophyta Sphangnum Sphagnum is a genus of mosses, commonly known as peat moss. Accumulations of Sphagnum can store

water, since both living and dead plants can hold large quantities of water inside their cells. The empty cells help retain water in drier conditions. Hence, as sphagnum moss grows, it can slowly spread into drier conditions, forming larger mires, both raised bogs and blanket bogs.

Sphagnum and the peat formed from it do not decay readily because of the

phenolic compounds embedded in the moss's cell walls. In addition, bogs, like all wetlands, develop anaerobic soil conditions, which produces slower anaerobic decay rather than aerobic microbial action. Peat moss can also acidify its surroundings by taking up cations, such as calcium and magnesium, and releasing hydrogen ions. Polytrichium Polytrichum is a genus of mosses — commonly called haircap moss or hair moss. The Polytrichum genus has a number of closely related sporophytic characters. The scientific name is derived from the Ancient Greek words polys, meaning "many", and thrix, meaning "hair". This application specifically refers to the hairy calyptras found on young sporophytes. While mosses are considered non-

vascular plants, those of Polytrichum show clear differentiation of water

conducting tissue. One of these water conducting tissues is termed the hydrome, which makes up the central cylinder of stem tissue. It consists of cells with a relatively wide diameter called hydroids, which conduct water. This tissue is analogous to xylem in higher plants. The other tissue is called leptome, which surrounds the hydrome, contains smaller cells and is analogous to phloem.

Marchantiophyta Marchantia Marchantia is a genus in the family Marchantiaceae, a group of liverworts. The Marchantia thallus shows differentiation into two layers: an upper photosynthetic or assimilatory region and a lower storage region with a well-defined upper epidermis with air channels (barrel-shaped). The thallus features tiny cup-like structures called gemmae cups, which are used for asexual reproduction. Multicellular

purple colored scales and unicellular rhizoids are present on the ventral surface of the thallus. Lycopodiopsida Lycopodium Lycopodium is a genus of clubmosses, also known as ground pines or creeping cedar. They are flowerless, vascular, terrestrial or epiphytic plants, with widely branched, erect, prostrate or creeping

stems, with small, simple, needle-like or scale-like leaves that cover the stem and branches thickly. The leaves contain a single, unbranched vascular strand and are microphylls by definition. The kidney-shaped or reniform spore-cases (sporangia) contain spores of one kind only (isosporous, homosporous) and are borne on the upper surface of the leaf blade of specialized leaves (sporophylls) arranged in a cone-like strobilus at the end of upright stems. The club-shaped appearance of these fertile stems gives the club mosses their common name. Lycopods reproduce asexually by spores. The plants have an underground sexual phase that produces gametes, and this alternates in the lifecycle with the spore- producing plant. The prothallium developed from the spore is a subterranean mass of tissue of considerable size and bears both the male and female organs (antheridia and archegoniae). Polypodiopsida Equisetum Equisetum is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds. Equisetum is a "living fossil" as it is the only living genus of the entire class Equisetopsida. Some

Equisetopsida were large trees reaching to 30 meters tall.

The stems are coated with abrasive silicates, making them useful for scouring (cleaning) metal items such as cooking pots or drinking mugs, particularly those made of tin.

Pteridium A Pteridium is a member of a group of vascular plants that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. They differ from mosses by being vascular, i.e., having certain tissue that conducts water and nutrients, and having branched stems. Like other vascular plants, ferns have leaves, and these are "megaphylls", which are more complex than the "microphylls" of clubmosses. Most ferns are leptosporangiate ferns, sometimes termed "true ferns"; they produce what are called "fiddleheads" that uncoil and expand into fronds. Spermatopsida Ginkgophyta Ginkgo Ginkgo is a genus of highly unusual non-flowering plants. The closest living relatives of the clade are the cycads, which share with the extant G. biloba the characteristic of motile sperm.

Pinophyta Pinus A pine is any conifer in the genus Pinus of the family Pinaceae. Pine trees are evergreen, coniferous resinous trees (or, rarely, shrubs).

The bark of most pines is thick and scaly, but some species have thin, flaky bark. Pines are mostly monoecious, having the male and female cones on the same tree.

Cycadophyta Cycas The plants are dioecious, and the family Cycadaceae is unique among the cycads in not forming seed cones on female plants, but rather a group of leaf-like structures called megasporophylls each with seeds on the lower margins, and pollen cones or strobilus on male individuals. Living cycads are found in the tropical, subtropical and warm temperate

regions of both the north and south hemispheres.

The foliage leaves are pinnate (or more rarely bipinnate) and arranged spirally, with thick and hard keratinose.

Often considered a living fossil, the earliest fossils of the genus Cycas appear in the Cenozoic.

Within the living seed plants, they are nearly unique in that they produce motile sperm cells, and thus are an important link to the earliest of the ancient seed plants. Magnoliophyta Magnoliids Magnoliaceae Magnolia Members of the magnoliid clade are (Angiosperms) widespread throughout tropical and temperate areas of the world and can be large trees, shrubs, vines, lianas, and occasionally herbs.

Magnolia is an ancient genus. Appearing before bees did, the flowers are theorized to have evolved to encourage pollination by beetles. To avoid damage from pollinating beetles, the carpels of Magnolia flowers are extremely tough.

Another aspect of Magnolia considered to represent an ancestral state is that the flower bud is enclosed

in a bract rather than in sepals; the perianth parts are undifferentiated and called tepals rather than distinct sepals and petals.

Eudicotyledons Ranunculaceae Ranunculus Ranunculus is a genus of about 600 species of plants in the Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus include the buttercups, spearworts, and water crowfoots. The petals are often highly lustrous, especially in yellow species. Buttercups usually flower in the spring, but flowers may be found throughout the summer, especially where the plants are growing as opportunistic colonizers, as in the case of garden weeds.

Ranunculus species are used as food by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species.

Ranunculaceae are mostly herbaceous annuals or perennials

Most members of the family have bisexual flowers which can be showy or inconspicuous, and can be radially or bilaterally symmetrical. The sepals

and petals are generally free (unfused) and typically number four or five. In many species, the sepals are colorful and appear petal-like. In these species, the petals can be inconspicuous or absent. The stems are unarmed. The leaves are variable. Most species have both basal and cauline (stem) leaves, which are usually compound or lobed but can be simple. They are typically alternate, or occasionally opposite or even whorled. Many species, especially the perennials form rhizomes that develop new roots each year.

Rosaceae Rosa A rose is a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus Rosa, in the family Rosaceae, or the flower it bears.

Several economically important products come from the Rosaceae, including many edible fruits (such as apples, pears, quinces, apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, raspberries, loquats, and strawberries), almonds, and ornamental trees and shrubs (such as roses, meadowsweets, photinias, firethorns, rowans, and hawthorns).

Flowers of plants in the rose family are generally described as "showy". They are actinomorphic (i.e. radially symmetrical) and almost always

hermaphroditic. Rosaceae generally have five sepals, five petals, and many spirally arranged stamens. The bases of the sepals, petals, and stamens are fused together to form a characteristic cup-like structure called a hypanthium. They can be arranged in racemes, spikes, or heads; solitary flowers are rare.

Prunus Prunus is a genus of trees and shrubs, which includes the plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots and almonds.

Members of the genus can be deciduous or evergreen. A few species have spiny stems. The leaves are simple, alternate, usually lanceolate, unlobed, and often with nectaries on the leaf stalk. The flowers are usually white to pink, sometimes red, with five petals and five sepals. There are numerous stamens. Flowers are borne singly, or in umbels of two to six or sometimes more on racemes. The fruit is a fleshy drupe (a "prune") with a single relatively large, hard-coated seed (a "stone").

Fabaceae Pisum Pisum is a genus of the family Fabaceae, native to southwest Asia and northeast Africa.

Pisum sativum (the field or garden pea), is a major human food crop (see Pea and Split pea).

The flowers often have five generally fused sepals and five free petals. They are generally hermaphrodite, and have a short hypanthium, usually cup shaped. There are normally ten stamens and one elongated superior ovary, with a curved style. They are usually arranged in indeterminate inflorescences. Fabaceae are typically entomophilous plants (i.e. they are pollinated by insects), and the flowers are usually showy to attract pollinators.

The ovary most typically develops into a legume. A legume is a simple dry fruit that usually dehisces (opens along a seam) on two sides. Acacia Acacia, commonly known as the wattles or acacias, is a large genus of shrubs, lianas and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae.

Malvaceae Gossypium Gossypium is the cotton genus. It belongs to the tribe Gossypieae, in the mallow family, Malvaceae, native to the tropical and subtropical regions.

Cotton is the primary natural fibre used by modern humans. Cultivated cotton is also a major oilseed crop, as well as a main protein source for animal feed.

Flower

• Pedicel jointed, • Bracteate, • Large, • Showy, • Pentamerous, • Bracteolate, • Bisexual, • Dichlamydeous, • Actinomorphic, • Complete and • Hypogynous and • Mucilage exists in floral parts.

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbia The Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants.

The plants can be monoecious or dioecious. The radially symmetrical flowers are unisexual, with the male and female flowers usually on the same plant. The stamens (the male organs) number from one to 10 (or even more). The female flowers are hypogynous, that is, with superior ovaries.

The genera in tribe Euphorbieae, subtribe Euphorbiinae (Euphorbia and close relatives) show a highly specialized form of pseudanthium ("false flower" made up of several true flowers) called a cyathium. In the middle of the cyathium stands a female flower: a single pistil with branched stigmas. This whole arrangement resembles a single flower. The fruit is usually a schizocarp, but sometimes a drupe.

Moraceae Ficus Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone.

The fruit of most other species are also edible though they are usually of only local economic importance or eaten as bushfood.

Cactaceae Opuntia The Cactaceae are mostly spiny succulents with photosynthetic. The leaves are alternate, generally extremely reduced and ephemeral or absent, or rarely they are well developed and fleshy. The leaves are associated with highly modified

axillary buds or shoots called areoles that bear spines. The flowers are mostly bisexual and actinomorphic and have many weakly differentiated perianth segments arising from an epigynous zone. The androecium typically consists of a very large number of stamens arising from the inner face of the epigynous zone. The gynoecium consists of a compound pistil of 3-many carpels, an equal number of stigmas, and an equal number of parietal placentae with numerous ovules in the single locule of the inferior ovary. The fruit is a berry, often with spines or bristles.

Brassicaceae Brassica Brassica is a genus of plants in the mustard family, the (Brassicaceae). The members of the genus are informally known as cruciferous vegetables, cabbages, or mustard plants. Crops from this genus are sometimes called cole crops—derived from the Latin caulis, denoting the stem or stalk of a plant.

The genus Brassica is known for its important agricultural and horticultural crops and includes a number of weeds, both of wild taxa and escapees from cultivation. Brassica species and varieties commonly used for food

include broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, choy sum, rutabaga, turnip and some seeds used in the production of canola oil and the condiment mustard.

Arabidopsis Arabidopsis (rockcress) is a genus in the family Brassicaceae. They are small flowering plants related to cabbage and mustard. This genus is of great interest since it contains thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), one of the model organisms used for studying plant biology and the first plant to have its entire genome sequenced. Changes in thale cress are easily observed, making it a very useful model.

Myrtaceae Eucalyptus Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees and shrubs (including a distinct group with a multiple-stem mallee growth habit) in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae.

Many species, though by no means all, are known as gum trees because they exude copious kino from any break in

the bark (e.g., scribbly gum). The generic name is derived from the Greek words ευ (eu) "well" and καλύπτω (kalýpto) "to cover", referring to the operculum on the calyx that initially conceals the flower.

Flowers have numerous fluffy stamens which may be white, cream, yellow, pink, or red; in bud, the stamens are enclosed in a cap known as an operculum which is composed of the fused sepals or petals, or both. Thus, flowers have no petals, but instead decorate themselves with the many showy stamens.

Lamiaceae Lamium Lamium (dead-nettles) is a genus of about 40–50 species of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, of which it is the type genus. They are all herbaceous plants native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, but several have become very successful weeds of crop fields and are now widely naturalised across much of the

temperate world.

The flowers are bilaterally symmetrical with five united petals and five united sepals. They are usually bisexual and verticillastrate (a flower cluster that looks like a whorl of flowers, but actually consists of two crowded clusters).

Solanaceae Solanum The Solanaceae, or nightshades, are an economically important family of flowering plants. The family ranges from annual and perennial herbs to vines, lianas, epiphytes, shrubs, and trees, and includes a number of important agricultural crops, medicinal plants, spices, weeds, and ornamentals.

The most economically important genus of the family is Solanum, which contains the potato (S. tuberosum, in fact, another common name of the family is the "potato family"), the tomato, and the eggplant or aubergine. Another important genus, Capsicum, produces both chili peppers and bell peppers.

The flowers are usually actinomorphic, slightly zygomorphic. The flowers have a differentiated perianth with a calyx and corolla (with five sepals and five petals, respectively) an androecium with five stamens and two carpels forming a gynoecium with a superior ovary (they are therefore referred to as pentamers and tetracyclic).

Rubiaceae Coffea The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw

family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules.

Most Rubiaceae are zoophilous. Entomophilous species produce nectar from an epigynous disk at the base of the corolla tube to attract insects. Ornithophily is rare and is found in red-flowered species of Alberta, Bouvardia, and Burchellia. Anemophylous species are found in the tribes Anthospermeae and Theligoneae and are characterized by hermaphroditic and/or unisexual flowers that exhibit a set of specialized features, such as striking sexual dimorphism, increased receptive surface of the stigmas and pendulous anthers. Although most Rubiaceae species are hermaphroditic, outbreeding is promoted through proterandry and spatial isolation of the reproductive organs. Asteraceae Helianthus Helianthus or sunflowers is a genus of plants comprising about 70 species in the family Asteraceae.

Asteraceae or Compositae (commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family) is a very large and widespread family of

flowering plants (Angiospermae).

Many members have composite flowers in the form of flower heads (capitula or pseudanthia) surrounded by involucral bracts. When viewed from a distance, each capitulum may have the appearance of being a single flower.

he "petals" or "sunrays" in a sunflower head are actually individual strap- shaped flowers called "ray flowers", and the "sun disk" is made of smaller circular shaped individual flowers called "disc flowers".

Monocotyledons Liliaceae Lilium Lilium (members of which are true lilies) is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world.

They are monocotyledonous, perennial, herbaceous, often bulbous geophytes. Plants in this family have evolved with a fair amount of

morphological diversity despite genetic similarity. Common characteristics include large flowers with parts arranged in threes: with six colored or patterned petaloid tepals (undifferentiated petals and sepals) arranged in two whorls, six stamens and a superior ovary. The leaves are linear in shape, with their veins usually arranged parallel to the edges, single and arranged alternating on the stem, or in a rosette at the base. Most species are grown from bulbs, although some have rhizomes. Amaryllidaceae Allium The Amaryllidaceae are a family of herbaceous, mainly perennial and bulbous (rarely rhizomatous) flowering plants in the monocot order Asparagales. The family takes its name from the genus Amaryllis and is commonly known as the amaryllis family. The leaves are usually linear, and the flowers are usually bisexual and symmetrical, arranged in umbels on the stem.

The petals and sepals are undifferentiated as tepals, which may be fused at the base into a floral tube. Some also display a corona. Allyl sulfide compounds produce the characteristic odour of the onion subfamily (Allioideae).

Orchidaceae Vanilla The Orchidaceae are a diverse and widespread family of flowering plants, with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant, commonly known as the orchid family. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering plants.

The Orchidaceae are well known for the many structural variations in their flowers. Some orchids have single flowers, but most have a racemose inflorescence, sometimes with a large number of flowers. As an apomorphy of the clade, orchid flowers are primitively zygomorphic (bilaterally

symmetrical).

The orchid flower, like most flowers of monocots, has two whorls of sterile elements. The outer whorl has three sepals and the inner whorl has three petals. The sepals are usually very similar to the petals (thus called tepals, 1), but may be completely distinct. The medial petal, called the labellum or lip, which is always modified and enlarged, is actually the upper medial petal; however, as the flower develops, the inferior ovary or the pedicel usually rotates 180°, so that the labellum arrives at the lower part of the flower, thus becoming suitable to form a platform for pollinators. This characteristic, called resupination.

Poaceae Zea Poaceae or Gramineae is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants known as grasses.

Poaceae includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and cultivated lawns (turf) and pasture. Grasses have stems that are hollow except at the nodes and narrow alternate leaves borne in two ranks.

Flowers of Poaceae are characteristically arranged in spikelets, each having one or more florets. The spikelets are further grouped into panicles or spikes. The part of the spikelet that bears the florets is called the rachilla. A spikelet consists of two (or sometimes fewer) bracts at the base, called glumes, followed by one

or more florets. Triticum A floret consists of the flower surrounded by two bracts, one external—the lemma—and one internal—the palea. The flowers are usually hermaphroditic—maize being an important exception—and anemophilous or wind-pollinated. The perianth is reduced to two scales, called lodicules, that expand and contract to spread the lemma and

palea; these are generally interpreted to be modified sepals. This complex structure can be seen in the image on the right, portraying a wheat (Triticum aestivum) spikelet. The fruit of grasses is a caryopsis, in which the seed coat is fused to the fruit wall. A tiller is a leafy shoot other than the first shoot produced from the seed.

Bambusa

Cyperaceae Cyperus The Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses and rushes.

Features distinguishing members of the sedge family from grasses or rushes are stems with triangular cross- sections (with occasional exceptions) and leaves that are spirally arranged in three ranks (grasses have alternate leaves forming two ranks).

Arecaceae Cocos The Arecaceae are a botanical family of perennial climbers, shrubs, acaules and trees commonly known as palm trees (owing to historical usage, the family is alternatively called Palmae).

Palms have large, evergreen leaves that are either palmately ('fan-leaved') or pinnately ('feather-leaved') compound and spirally arranged at the top of the stem. The inflorescence is a spadix or spike surrounded by one or more bracts or spathes that become woody at maturity. The flowers are generally small and white, radially symmetric, and can be either uni- or bisexual. The sepals and petals usually

number three each, and may be distinct or joined at the base. The stamens generally number six, with filaments that may be separate, attached to each other, or attached to the pistil at the base. The fruit is usually a single-seeded drupe (sometimes berry-like).

Like all monocots, palms do not have the ability to increase the width of a stem (secondary growth) via the same kind of vascular cambium found in non-monocot woody plants. This explains the cylindrical shape of the trunk (almost constant diameter) that is often seen in palms, unlike in true trees. However, many palms, like some other monocots, do have secondary growth, although because it does not arise from a single vascular cambium producing xylem inwards and phloem outwards, it is often called "anomalous secondary growth".

Araceae Monstera Monstera is a genus of about 50 species of flowering plants in the arum family, Araceae, native to tropical regions of the Americas. Species in the Araceae are often rhizomatous or tuberous and are often found to contain calcium oxalate crystals or raphides. The leaves can vary considerably from species to

species. The inflorescence is composed of a spadix, which is almost always surrounded by a modified leaf called a spathe. In monoecious aroids (possessing separate male and female flowers, but with both flowers present on one plant), the spadix is usually organized with female flowers towards the bottom and male flowers towards the top. In aroids with perfect flowers, the stigma is no longer receptive when the pollen is released, thus preventing self-fertilization. Some species are dioecious. Many plants in this family are thermogenic (heat-producing).

Bromeliaceae Ananas Ananas is a plant genus of the Bromeliad family (Bromeliaceae), native to South America and Central America which includes the species Ananas comosus, the pineapple.

The inflorescences produced by bromeliads are also regarded as considerably more diverse than any other plant family. Some flower spikes may reach 10 meters tall, while others only measure 2–3 mm across. Upright stalks may be branched or simple with spikes retaining their color from two weeks up to 12 months, depending on species. In some species, the flower remains unseen, growing deep in the

base of the plants.

Root systems vary according to plant type. Terrestrial bromeliad species have complex root systems that gather water and nutrients, while epiphytic bromeliads only grow hard, wiry roots to attach themselves to trees and rocks. Ameobozoa Lobosea Amoeba An amoeba often called amoeboid, is a type of cell or organism which has the ability to alter its shape, primarily by extending and retracting pseudopods. Specifically, the amoeba moves by extending a pseudopod (a process known as “ballooning”), attaching it to the substrate and filling it with cytosol and releasing its rear portion from attachment to the substrate which results in the organism being propelled forward.

In older classification systems, most amoebas were placed in the class or subphylum Sarcodina, a grouping of single-celled organisms that possess pseudopods or move by protoplasmic flow. Amoebae move and feed by using pseudopods, which are bulges of cytoplasm formed by the coordinated action of actin microfilaments pushing out the plasma membrane that surrounds the cell.

Eumycetozoa Dictyostelium Slime mold or slime mould is an informal name given to several kinds of unrelated eukaryotic (Slime molds) organisms that can live freely as single cells, but can aggregate together to form multicellular reproductive structures. Slime molds were formerly classified as fungi but are no longer considered part of that kingdom.

Many slime molds, mainly the "cellular" slime molds, do not spend most of their time in this state. As long as food is abundant, these slime molds exist as single-celled organisms. When food is in short supply, many of these single-celled organisms will congregate and start moving as a single body. In this state they are sensitive to airborne chemicals and can detect food sources. They can readily change the shape and function of parts and may form stalks that produce fruiting bodies, releasing countless spores, light enough to be carried on the wind or hitch a ride on passing animals.

Fungi Zygomycota Mucor Zygomycete hyphae may be coenocytic, forming septa only where gametes are formed or to wall off dead hyphae.

Zygomycota are defined and distinguished from all other fungi by sexual reproduction via zygospores following gametangial fusion and asexual reproduction by uni-to-multispored sporangia within which nonmotile, single-celled sporangiospores are produced.

Zygomycota, like all true fungi, produce cell walls containing chitin. They grow primarily as mycelia, or filaments of long cells called hyphae. Unlike the so-called 'higher fungi' comprising the Ascomycota and Basidiomycota which produce regularly septate mycelia, most Zygomycota form hyphae which are generally coenocytic because they lack cross walls or septa.

The unique character (synapomorphy) of the Zygomycota is the zygospore. Zygospores are formed within a zygosporangium after the fusion of specialized hyphae called gametangia during the sexual cycle. A single zygospore is formed per zygosporangium. The mature zygospore is often thick-walled,

and undergoes an obligatory dormant period before germination. Most Zygomycota are thought to have a zygotic or haplontic life cycle. Thus, the only diploid phase takes place within the zygospore.

Ascomycota Claviceps The Ascomycota, or sac fungi, is monophyletic and accounts for approximately 75% of all described fungi. It includes most of the fungi that combine with algae to form lichens, and the majority of fungi that lack morphological evidence of sexual reproduction. Among the Ascomycota are some famous fungi: Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the yeast of commerce and foundation of the baking and brewing industries (not to mention molecular developmental biology), Penicillium chrysogenum, producer of penicillin, Morchella esculentum, the edible morel, and Neurospora crassa, the "one-gene-one- enzyme" organism.

The shared derived character that defines the Ascomycota is the ascus. It is within the ascus that Penicillium

nuclear fusion and meiosis take place. In the ascus, one round of mitosis typically follows meiosis to leave eight nuclei, and eventually eight ascospores. Ascospores are formed within the ascus by an enveloping membrane system, which packages each nucleus with its adjacent cytoplasm and provides the site for ascospore wall formation.

Ascomycota are heterotrophs and obtain nutrients from dead or living organisms. The textbook Ascomycota can make spores sexually (ascospores or meiospores) and asexually (condia or mitospores). Following meiosis, the ascospores take shape inside the ascus when new cell walls surround each nucleus.

Ascomycota are either single-celled (yeasts) or filamentous (hyphal) or both (dimorphic). Yeasts grow Saccharomyces by budding or fission and hyphae grow apically and branch laterally. Most yeasts and filamentous Ascomycota are haploid, but some species, Saccharomyces cerevisiae for example, can also be diploid. Mitospores may simply reproduce the parent, or may also act as gametes to fertilize a compatible partner. Some Ascomycota must outbreed (heterothallic), others can also self, and some can only self (homothallic).

Basidiomycota Agaricus Symbiotic lifestyles (intimate associations with other living organisms) are well developed in the Basidiomycota. Symbiotic Basidiomycota include important plant pathogens, such as "rusts" (Uredinales) and "smuts" (Ustilaginales), which attack wheat and other crops. Other symbiotic Basidiomycota cause diseases in animals, including humans.

Basidiomycota are unicellular or multicellular, sexual or asexual, and terrestrial or aquatic. The most

Puccinia diagnostic feature is the production of basidia (sing. basidium), which are the cells on which sexual spores are produced, and from which the group takes its name. A long-lived dikaryon, in which each cell in the thallus contains two haploid nuclei resulting from a mating event, is another characteristic feature. The basidium is the cell in which karyogamy (nuclear fusion) and meiosis occur, and on which haploid basidiospores are formed (basidia are not produced by asexual Basidiomycota). Many Basidiomycota produce basidia on multicellular fruiting bodies (e.g., mushrooms), but basidia can also be formed directly from yeasts or other single cells. Typically, four spores are produced on each basidium, at the tips of minute stalks called sterigmata. Each spore usually contains one or two of the haploid meiotic products.

Basidiospores germinate to form hyphae (filaments) or yeast cells that are typically haploid and uninucleate. The hyphae of Basidiomycota are septate. Ultrastructural features of the septa, visible with transmission electron microscopy, have been important in developing phylogenetic hypotheses in Basidiomycota. Mating in Basidiomycota involves fusion of haploid cells, but fusion of the nuclei is usually delayed until the basidia are formed. Thus, the dominant phase of the life cycle in most Basidiomycota is a dikaryon, in which the two nuclei brought together in mating exist side-by-side in each cell.

Metazoa Porifera Spongia Sponges (phylum Porifera) are an exclusively aquatic and, with a few exceptions. (Animalia) 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.

The body plan of a sponge is simple: a Traditionally, sponges have been single outer layer of cells (the regarded as a monophyletic group pinacoderm) separates the inner cellular defined by several synapomorphies, region (mesohyl) from the external including the presence of: environment. The pinacoderm lines the internal canals and is eventually • choanocytes replaced by the choanoderm, a layer of • an aquiferous system with characteristic flagellated collar cells external pores (choanocytes) grouped in chambers. • mineral spicules Choanocytes make up the principle • high cellular mobility and ‘pump’ and’ filter’ of the system, totipotency driving water through the sponge, • absence of tissues trapping and phagocytizing suspended bacteria and other particulate food, which is then digested and nutrients distributed among the cells of the mesohyl that facilitate the functions of feeding, respiration and reproduction. The flow of water inside a sponge is unidirectional: the water is drawn in through tiny pores (ostia) in the pinacoderm and exits through one or more larger openings (osculae). The aquiferous system of a sponge is usually supported by a combination of two types of skeletal elements: mineral spicules (either calcareous or siliceous) and special protein fibers (spongin), although either one or both of these elements can be absent.

Cnidaria Anthozoa Anemonia The exclusively aquatic phylum Cnidaria is represented by polyps such as sea anemones and corals, and by medusae such as jellyfish. A polypoid or a medusoid cnidarian is a radially or biradially symmetrical, uncephalized

animal with a single body opening, the mouth. The mouth is surrounded by tentacles studded with microscopic stinging capsules known as nematocysts that are the agents of offense and defense. The possession of intrinsic nematocysts is the defining characteristic of the phylum; nematocysts are the most diverse and widespread of three types of cnidae (cnidos = thread) -- hence the preferred name of the phylum.

Corallium

Scyphozoa Aurelia

Cnidarians are diploblastic -- that is, the body and tentacles consist of two cell layers, the endoderm (sometimes referred to as the gastrodermis) and the ectoderm (the epidermis). Between the two cell layers is the mesoglea, which ranges from little more than a glue to bind the layers (for example, in Hydra) to the vast bulk of the animal (for example, in jellyfish of Class Scyphozoa). The body encompasses a single sac-like body space, the coelenteron (koilos = cavity; enteron = intestine), which communicates with the surrounding medium through the mouth. The less preferred name of the phylum, Coelenterata, is based on this attribute. The coelenteron

(also termed the gastrovascular cavity) serves for gas exchange and digestion.

All cnidarians are carnivorous, with cnidae and tentacles active in prey capture. Because polyps are typically sessile, and only some medusae possess sensory structures, cnidarians are generally believed to be passive predators, feeding on prey items that blunder into their tentacles. Some cnidarians can absorb dissolved organic matter directly from seawater, but it is not known how widespread this ability is. Living within the tissues of anthozoans of many species and hydrozoans and scyphozoans of a small number of species are unicellular algae from which the animals derive reduced carbon. Dinoflagellate symbionts, termed zooxanthellae, are by far the most common algal symbionts; they are exclusively marine. Green algal symbionts, termed zoochlorellae, occur in both marine and freshwater cnidarians.

The text-book depiction of the typical cnidarian life cycle is an alternation between a medusa and a polyp (termed metagenesis), the former the sexually reproductive stage and the latter the asexual stage. In fact, an attribute of the entire class Anthozoa is the absence of a medusa. At least

some individuals of all anthozoan species form gametes; those of some species may reproduce vegetatively as well. The other three classes -- Cubozoa, Hydrozoa, and Scyphozoa -- are often grouped as the "Medusozoa" because the medusa phase is present in them all. Indeed, the medusa dominates the life cycle of members of the classes Cubozoa and Scyphozoa (Cubozoa was formerly considered an order of Scyphozoa, and some specialists still consider it as such). Life cycles of the Hydrozoa are the most diverse in the phylum: although the polyp is the more conspicuous and persistent stage in most taxa, some lack the medusa phase, whereas others lack the polyp phase. Hydra, which is used in many textbooks to illustrate the phylum, is utterly atypical: a hydrozoan, it lacks a medusa, it has aggregations of gametogenic tissue that function as gonads, and it is among only a handful of freshwater cnidarian species.

The cnidarian larva is the planula, a pear-shaped, entirely ciliated animal. In the "typical" cnidarian life cycle, male and female medusae spawn freely into the sea, where fertilization occurs and a planula develops. At metamorphosis, the planula settles on and attaches to the substratum, where it metamorphoses into a polyp. The primary polyp produces additional polyps asexually, by budding, stolonic outgrowth, or some other process, to form a clone or a colony. At the appropriate time, determined perhaps by size of the colony or environmental conditions, rather than or in addition to polyps, medusae are produced asexually (in Cubozoa, each polyp metamorphoses into a medusa). They are released to take up a pelagic existence and the cycle begins anew.

The cnida, or nematocyst, which is the sine qua non of the phylum, is secreted by the Golgi apparatus of a cell termed a cnidoblast. A cnida therefore is technically not an organelle, but, rather, the most complex secretory product known. Upon receiving the appropriate physical and/or chemical stimulus, a cnida fires, everting a tubule many times the length of the capsule. The tubule may deliver a toxin, may stick to a prey item, or may entangle an object, depending on the type of cnida. A cnida can fire but once. There are three major types of cnidae: nematocysts, spirocysts,

and ptychocysts. Nematocysts occur in all classes of Cnidaria, but some of the 30-plus varieties of nematocysts are restricted to members of certain classes. Spirocysts are found only in Anthozoa; they are adhesive in nature. Ptychocysts are the most taxonomically restricted in distribution, occurring only in the anthozoan order Ceriantharia; their function is to entangle bits of mud among their robust tubules to form the feltwork that constitutes the tube of these burrowing animals.

Two body forms are characteristic of cnidarians -- the polyp and the medusa. With a few exceptions, a columnar polyp is sedentary, being attached to or burrowed into the substratum by the end opposite the mouth. Thus, its tentacles are typically considered to point upward and outward. Polyps of some species propagate vegetatively, forming colonies (if the progeny remain attached to one another) or clones (if the progeny separate). Polymorphism occurs in colonies of some species of hydrozoans and anthozoans, the polyps being specialized for functions such as feeding, defense, and sexual reproduction. Polyps of some taxa form a skeleton within or external to their tissues; some skeletons are mineralic (of calcium carbonate), others are organic (of chitin or another carbohydrate), and some are both. The spheroidal or discoidal medusae are solitary, and those of most species are pelagic. Although typically depicted as living with mouth and tentacles pointing down, medusae assume all orientations in the water. Medusae of few species possess the ability to propagate vegetatively. The common name of medusae, jellyfish, alludes to the massive amount of mesoglea that contributes to their buoyancy.

All cnidarians have hydrostatic skeletons, regardless of whether they also have mineralic and/or organic exoskeletons or endoskeletons. The muscles of the body wall operate against the fluid in the coelenteron to extend individual polyps and to affect the swimming of medusae, for example. The hollow tentacles of anthozoans are extended through hydrostatic action as well.

Hydrazoa Hydra

Ctenophora Mertensia Ctenophores (Greek for "comb-bearers") have eight "comb rows" of fused cilia arranged along the sides of the animal, clearly visible along the red lines in these pictures. These cilia beat synchronously and propel ctenophores through the water. Some species move with a flapping motion of their lobes or undulations of the body. Many ctenophores have two long tentacles, but some lack tentacles completely.

Ctenophores, variously known as comb jellies, sea gooseberries, sea walnuts, or Venus's girdles, are voracious predators. Unlike cnidarians, with which they share several superficial similarities, they lack stinging cells. Instead, in order to capture prey, ctenophores possess sticky cells called colloblasts. In a few species, special cilia in the mouth are used for biting gelatinous prey.

Bilateria Platyhelminthes Trematoda Schistosoma Characteristics of Platyhelminthes: 1)Bilaterally symmetrical. 2)Body having 3 layers of tissues with organs and organelles. 3)Body contains no internal cavity. 4)Possesses a blind gut (i.e. it has a mouth but no anus) 5)Has Protonephridial excretory organs instead of an anus. Turbellaria Pseudoceros 6)Has normally a nervous system of

longitudinal fibres rather than a net. 7)Generally dorsoventrally flattened. 8)Reproduction mostly sexual as hermaphrodites. 9)Mostly they feed on animals and other smaller life forms. 10)Some species occur in all major habitats, including many as parasites of other animals.

Cestoda Echinococcus While they remain fairly morphologically simple the Platyhelminthes show several advance in body structure over the simple radial phyla that came before them. They have a definite congregation of of sensory organs(a few have light sensing organs) and nervous tissues at one end of their body giving them a distinct head and tail. They also have distinct upper and lower (dorsal and ventral) body surfaces. They have a number of organs and even the beginnings of organ systems and a more distinct 3rd layer of cells in their body plan. The evolution of this connective tissue, called parenchyma, the cells of which serve as storage reservoirs as well as protecting the internal organs, is a major step forward toward the more complex body plans of higher animals, such as humans.

Lophotrochozoa Mollusca Gastropoda Arion Most gastropods have separate sexes but some groups (mainly the Heterobranchia) are hermaphroditic. Most hermaphroditic forms do not normally engage in self-fertilization. Basal gastropods release their gametes into the water column where they undergo development; Achantia derived gastropods use a penis to copulate or exchange spermatophores and produce eggs surrounded by protective capsules or jelly.

The first gastropod larval stage is typically a trochophore that transforms into a veliger and then settles and undergoes metamorphosis to form a juvenile snail. While many marine species undergo larval development, there are also numerous marine taxa that have direct development, this mode being the norm in freshwater and terrestrial taxa. Brooding of developing embryos is widely distributed throughout the gastropods, as are sporadic occurrences of hermaphrodism in the non- heterobranch taxa.

Gastropods are characterized by the possession of a single (often coiled) shell, although this is lost in some slug groups, and a body that has undergone torsion so that the pallial cavity faces forwards. They have a well-developed head bearing a pair of cephalic tentacles and eyes that are primitively situated near the outer bases of the tentacles. In some taxa the eyes are located on short to long eye stalks. The mantle edge in some taxa is extended anteriorly to form an inhalant siphon and this is sometimes associated with an elongation of the shell opening (aperture) — this is shown in the photo of the caenogastropod Conus bullatus below. The foot is usually rather large and is typically used for crawling. The foot typically bears an operculum that seals the shell opening (aperture) when the head-foot is retracted into the shell (see photos below). While this structure is present in all gastropod veliger larvae, it is absent in the embryos of some direct developing taxa and in the juveniles and adults of many heterobranchs. The nervous and circulatory systems are well developed with the concentration of nerve ganglia being a common evolutionary theme.

The shell is typically coiled, usually dextrally, the axis of coiling being around a central columella to which a large retractor muscle is attached. The uppermost part of the shell is formed from the larval shell (the protoconch). The shell is partly or entirely lost in the

juveniles or adults of some groups, with total loss occurring in several groups of land slugs and sea slugs (nudibranchs). Cephallopoda Nautilus Cephalopods are the most intelligent, most mobile, and the largest of all molluscs. Squid, octopuses, cuttlefish, the chambered nautilus, and their relatives display remarkable diversity in size and lifestyle with adaptations for predation, locomotion, disguise, and communication. Sepia

Sexes are separate and mating usually includes a courtship that often involves elaborate color changes. This is followed by the transfer of a spermatophore (sperm packet) by a male to a female through her mantle opening. The Bivalvia Pinctada spermatophore is transferred by the male using either a penis or a modified arm called a hectocotylus. Most females then lay large yolky eggs in clusters on the ocean floor or on any other hard substrate. Eggs develop by dividing unequally instead of in the spiral

pattern of other molluscs. It is thought this is a derived mode of development. After a period of development within the egg, juveniles hatch out directly without the swimming larval stage common to many other molluscs. Most males and females die shortly after spawning.

Cephalopods are the only mollusks with a closed circulatory system. Coleoids have two gill hearts (also known as branchial hearts) that move blood through the capillaries of the gills. A single systemic heart then pumps the

oxygenated blood through the rest of the body. Like most molluscs, cephalopods use hemocyanin, a copper-containing protein, rather than hemoglobin, to transport oxygen. As a result, their blood is colorless when deoxygenated and turns blue when exposed to air. Annelida Polychaeta Nereis The Polychaeta also known as the bristle worms or polychaetes, are a paraphyletic class of annelid worms, generally marine. Each body segment has a pair of fleshy protrusions called parapodia that bear many bristles, called chaetae, which are made of chitin. Clitellata Hirudo All clitellata are hermaphrodites. During (Oligochaeta) reproduction, the clitellum secretes a coat which hardens. The worm then creeps out backward from the coat and deposits either fertilized zygotes or both ova and sperm into the coat, which is then packed into a cocoon. The zygotes then evolve further directly in the cocoon without passing through a larva Lumbricus stadium (as opposed to other annelids, e.g. polychaeta.)

Ecdysozoa Nematoda Caenorhabditis Nematodes were once classified with a very large and heterogeneous cluster of animals grouped together on the basis of their overall worm-like appearance, simple structure of an internal body cavity called a pseudocoelom, and the lack of features such as cilia and a well-defined head that are found in most animals. This group, variously known as Aschelminths or Pseudocoelomata, is today no longer recognized as a natural one. It is quite likely that the simple body plan of these organisms has resulted from reduction and simplification from more than one group of ancestral organisms, and so the pseudocoelom is neither a uniquely derived nor useful character. Current studies indicate that nematodes are actually related to the arthropods and priapulids in a newly recognized group, the Ecdysozoa.

The body of a nematode is long and narrow, resembling a tiny thread in many cases, and this is the origin of the group's name. The epidermis (skin) of a nematode is highly unusual; it is not composed of cells like other animals, but instead is a mass of cellular material and nuclei without separate membranes. This epidermis secretes a thick outer cuticle which is both tough and flexible. The cuticle is a

feature shared with arthropods and other ecdysozoans. As in those other groups, the cuticle is periodically shed during the life of a nematode as it grows, usually four times before reaching the adult stage. The cuticle is the closest thing a roundworm has to a skeleton, and in fact the worm uses its cuticle as a support and leverage point for movement. Long muscles lie just underneath the epidermis. These muscles are all aligned longitudinally along the inside of the body, so the nematode can only bend its body from side to side, not crawl or lift itself. A free-swimming roundworm thus looks rather like it is thrashing about aimlessly.

The muscles are activated by two nerves that run the length of the nematode on both the dorsal (back) and ventral (belly) side. Unlike other animals, where the nerves branch out to the muscle cells, a nematode's muscle cells branch toward the nerves. The ventral nerve has a series of nerve centers along its length, and both nerves connect to a nerve ring and additional nerve centers located near the head.

The head of a nematode has a few tiny sense organs, and a mouth opening into a muscular pharynx (throat) where food is pulled in and crushed. This leads into a long simple gut cavity lacking any muscles, and then to an anus near the tip of the body. Food digested in the gut is not distributed by any specialized vascular system, and neither is there a respiratory system for the uptake or distribution of oxygen. Rather, nutrients and waste are distributed in the body cavity, whose contents are regulated by an excretory canal along each side of the body. Many nematodes are able to suspend their life processes completely when conditions become unfavorable; in these resistant states they can survive extreme drying, heat, or cold, and then return to life when favorable conditions return. This is known as cryptobiosis, and is a feature nematodes share with rotifers and tardigrades. Arthropoda See below

ARTHROPODA Chelicerata Opiliones Phalangium The subphylum Chelicerata is one of the five subdivisions of the phylum Arthropoda, with members characterized by the absence of antennae and mandibles (jaws) and the presence of chelicerae (a pincer-like mouthpart as the anterior appendage, composed of a base segment and a fang portion). Extant chelicerates include spiders, scorpions, ticks, and mites (class Arachnida), horseshoe crabs (class Xiphosura or Merostomata), and sea spiders (class Pycnogonida).

As with all arthropods, chelicerates are characterized by the possession of a segmented body, a pair of jointed appendages on each segment, and an exoskeleton.

In the Chelicerata, the body is divided into two parts. The anterior part is called a prosoma (or Scorpionida Pandinus cephalothorax) and is composed of eight segments plus a presegmental acron. The posterior part is called a opisthosoma (or abdomen) and is composed of twelve segments plus a postsegmental telson.

The prosoma usually has eyes. The first two segments of the prosoma bear no appendages; the third bears the chelicerae. The fourth segment bears legs or pedipalps, and all subsequent segments bear legs. The legs on the prosoma are either uniramous or have a very reduced gill branch, and are adapted for walking or swimming. The appendages on the opisthosoma, in contrast, are either absent or are reduced to their gill branch. Acari Sarcoptes As in other arthropods, the mouth lies between the second and third segments, but whereas in other groups there is usually a pair of antennae on the last preoral segment, here there are none.

The chelicerae, which give the group its name, are pointed appendages that grasp the food in place of the chewing mandibles most other arthropods have. Most chelicerates are unable to ingest anything solid, so they drink blood or spit or inject digestive enzymes into their prey.

Ixodes

Araneae Haplopelma Nephila

Myriapoda Chilopoda Scolopendra Centipedes have long, flattened, worm-like, segmented bodies. They can have 12-100 body segments. They (centipedes) have long, jointed antennae on their heads. The next segment of their bodies has a pair of modified legs. These legs are not used for walking, they have sharp poisonous claws on them that the centipede uses to capture and paralyze its prey. Each of the remaining segments of their bodies has a pair of jointed walking legs. In many species, the walking legs end in a sharp claw.

Centipedes are nocturnal and spend the day in moist, dark places like under leaf litter, rotting logs, bark, or Diplopoda Glomeris rocks.It is a foot in length and lives in South America. Most centipedes are carnivores and eat insects. (millipedes) Millipedes have long, round, worm-like segmented bodies. They have round heads with very short antennae. Millipedes have two pairs of legs on each segment of their body. They are usually 1-2 inches in length and brown or black in color.

Millipedes don't have poison claws like centipedes. When they are threatened, they usually coil up in a ball. Some species emit a poisonous or smelly secretion. Most species of millipedes are scavengers or herbivores and eat decaying vegetation and leaf litter. Crustacea Branchiopoda Daphnia Species of Crustacea such as the shrimp, prawn, crab, or lobster are familiar. However, there are many

more with less common vernacular names such as the water fleas, beach fleas, sand hoppers, fish lice, wood lice, sow bugs, pill bugs, barnacles, scuds, slaters, and krill or whale food. The Crustacea are one of the most difficult animal groups to define because of their great diversity of structure, habit, habitat, and development. No one character or generalization will apply equally well to all.

Crustaceans have segmented, chitin-encased bodies; articulated appendages; mouthparts known as mandibles during some stage of their life, however modified they may be for cutting, chewing, piercing, sucking, or licking; and two pairs of accessory feeding organs, the maxillules and maxillae. The Crustacea are unique in having two pairs of antennae: the first pair, or antennules, and the second pair, the antennae Triops proper. The latter are almost always functional at some stage of every crustacean's life.

A dorsal shield or carapace of variable length arises from the dorsum of the third cephalic somite and covers the cephalon and cephalothorax to varying extent. The carapace reaches its greatest development in the malacostracan Decapoda (shrimps, lobsters, and crabs). The chitinous cuticle covering the crustacean body is its external skeleton (exoskeleton). The chitin is flexible at the joints, in foliaceous appendages, and throughout the exoskeletons of many small and soft- bodied species, but it is often thickened and stiff in others. It becomes calcified in many species as a result of the deposition of lime salts.

The paired appendages are typically biramous and consist of two branches: the endopod and exopod. The endopod is definitely segmented in the higher Crustacea. The endopods are variously modified to serve a variety of functions and needs such as sensory perception, respiration, locomotion, prehension and comminution of food, cleansing, defense, offense, reproduction, and sex recognition and attraction. If retained in the adult, the exopod may remain leaf- or paddlelike, or become flagellated structures, facilitating swimming or aiding respiration.

Crustacea take up oxygen by means of gills, the general body surface, or special areas of it. Some sow or pill bugs have special tracheal developments in their abdominal appendages for the same purpose. Malacostraca Homarus Malacostraca is a large and diverse taxon (generally class, but sometimes subclass or order) of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial crustaceans, including many of the most familiar crustaceans, such as crabs, lobsters, shrimps, which are characterized by a maximum of 19 pairs of appendages, as well as trunk limbs that are sharply differentiated into a thoracic series and an abdominal series. Other familiar members of the Malacostraca are the stomatopods (mantis shrimp) and euphausiids (krill), as well as the amphipods, and the only substantial group of land-based crustaceans, the isopods (woodlice and related species). This

Stenopus group represents two thirds of all crustacean species and contains all the larger forms. The taxonomic status of the crustaceans has long been debated, with Crustacea variously assigned to the rank of phylum, subphylum, and superclass level. As a result, the taxonomic status of Malacostraca is not settled, generally being considered a class within the subphylum or superclass Crustacea, but sometimes considered as an order or subclass under the class Crustacea.

As crustaceans, members of Malacostraca are characterized by having branched (biramous) appendages, an

Birgus exoskeleton made up of chitin and calcium, two pairs of antennae that extend in front of the mouth, and paired appendages that act like jaws, with three pairs of biting mouthparts. They share with other arthropods the possession of a segmented body, a pair of jointed appendages on each segment, and a hard exoskeleton that must be periodically shed for growth. Typical characteristics include:

• The head has 6 segments, with a pair of antennules and a pair of antennae, as well as mouthparts. • They usually have 8 pairs of thoracic legs, of which the first pair or several pairs are often modified into feeding appendages called maxillipeds. The first pair of legs behind the maxillipeds is often modified into pincers.

Oniscus • There are 8 thoracic segments. The cephalothorax is covered by a carapace form via fusion of 3 of them, letting the 5 other uncovered. • The abdomen is behind and often used for swimming. There are 6 abdominal segments. • They have compound stalked or sessile eyes. • The female genital duct opens at the sixth thoracic segment; the male genital duct opens at the eighth thoracic segment. • They have a two-chambered stomach. • They have a centralized nervous system.

However, this is a very diverse group. Although the term Malacostraca comes from the Greek for "soft shell," the shell of different species may be large, small, or absent. Likewise, the abdomen may be long or short, and the eyes may show different forms, being on movable stalks or sessile. Hexapoda • 3 thoracic Collembola Podura Collembola – springtails segments • Short legs, plump oval body, few abdominal segments • 3 pairs of legs • Furcula ʻtailʼ held under tension under the body allows jumping

Metamorphosis • Anamorphosis

• Simple metamorphosis = hemimetabolous (Nymph, instar) • True metamorphosis = holometabolous

Insecta Thysanura Lepisma A.k.a. Silverfish. • Two lateral abdominal cerci and a caudal filament Greek • Wingless thysanos • Long flat body, simple mouthparts, reduced or no eyes, long antennae oura – • Unique life cycle – effectively no metamorphosis tassel tail • Continue to molt after sexual maturity • Unspecialized chewing mouthparts • Often mistaken for earwigs - Dermaptera

Pterygota Odonata Libellula A.k.a. Dragonflies. Greek odontos – tooth • Toothed mandibles (bad name, lots of other insects also have this) • Carnivorous chewing mouthparts • Large compound eyes • Short filiform antennae • Hemimetabolous development

Dictyoptera Blattaria Blatta • Latin blatta – cockroach • Thickened forewings – Greek diktuon pteron – net wing tegmina • Also includes Mantodea, the • Prominent cerci, flat body, mantids small head under extended pronotum, long filiform

antennae • Chewing mouthparts • Hemimetabolous – young are often very pale

Isoptera Macrotermes A.k.a. termites. Iso pter – same wings • Winged individuals have two sets of nearly identical wings • Typically wingless • Winged alates are reproductive • Eusocial caste system • Differential caste morphology • Thorax-abdomen connection is often not distinct Orthoptera Tettigonia • Prominent tympanum ʻeardrumʼ Greek ortho ptera – straight wing • Chewing mouthparts • Simple metamorphosis • The main difference between a grasshopper and a cricket is that crickets tend to have long antennae, grasshoppers have short antennae. • Crickets stridulate ("sing") by rubbing their wings Schistocerca together, while grasshoppers stridulate by rubbing their long hind legs against their wings. • Grasshoppers detect sound by means of little 'ears' at the base of their abdomen; in crickets these are on the front legs. • These insects go through incomplete metamorphosis (i.e. egg, nymphs, adult, without a pupal stage). • In both crickets and grasshoppers, the hind legs are large

in proportion to their bodies, and this enables them to jump really long distances.

Phthiraptera Pediculus • Obligate parasites of mammal and avian species Greek phtheir a ptera – louse no • Biting/sucking mouthparts - parasitic wings • Dorsoventrally flattened body • Generally colorless • Often eyeless, or very reduced eyes • Reduced filiform antennae • Adapted tarsal hooks

Hemiptera Aphis Generic ʻbugsʼ – cicadas, aphids, stink bugs • Hemimetabolous • Wingless young slowly develop wings through successive instars • Some have “half-and-half” forewings • Half leathery and half membranous • “X marks the bug” • Donʼt mistake them for beetles!

• Visibly crossed wings Cicadella • Piercing mouthparts – Rostrum • Feed on fluids • Varied antennae

Endoptergyota Coleoptera Carabus A.k.a. Beetles.

Greek Endo ptery – internal wings • Thickened forewings – elytra • Wings develop within – true Greek koleos • Hind wings are membranous metamorphosis = holometabolous pteron – sheath flight wings • All orders of endopterygota are wing • Pronounced pronotum holometabolous • Downward pointing head • Often enlarged specialized Agrilus mandibles

Curculio

Psylliodes

Hymenoptera Urocerus • Includes bees, wasps, ants • Complete metamorphosis Greek hymen • Two pairs of wings act as one ptera – • Hamuli hooks on hind wings membranous attach to forewings wing • Some mouthparts modified to sucking proboscis • Distinctive pinched abdomen Agaon • Major modification of ovipositor to sting

Rhyssa

Apis

Vespa

Lepidoptera Papilio Butterflies, moths

• Larval chewing mouthparts, Greek lepis ptera adult sucking mouthparts – scale wing • Large compound eyes • Proboscis • Scaly wings

Macroglossum

Acronicta

Geometra

Diptera Culex Includes flies and mosquitoes • A winged insect with only one Greek di ptera – pair of wings two wings • Halteres – greatly reduced wings • Highly modified mouthparts • Short simple antennae • Well developed eyes

Tabanus To distinguish sexes in Drosophila:

Male: Sex combs on forelegs, rounder darker abdomen, dark spots on wings in some species Female: Pointed abdomen, often larger

Eristalis

Drosophila

Siphonaptera Pulex A.k.a. Fleas. • Piercing/sucking mouthparts Siphon a ptera – • Powerful jumping legs tube no wing! • Elastic protein resilin stores energy in tarsi • Sexual maturity in fleas is influenced by hormones in host blood • Laterally flattened body • Allows movement between hairs • Short recessed antennae

DEUTEROSTOMIA Echinodermata Asteroidea Linckia Echinoderms form a well-defined and highly-derived clade of metazoans. They have attracted much attention due to their extensive fossil record, ecological importance in the marine realm, intriguing adult morphology, unusual biomechanical properties, and experimentally manipulable embryos. The approximately 7,000 species of extant echinoderms fall into five well-defined clades: Crinoidea (sea lilies and feather stars), Ophiuroidea (basket stars and brittle stars), Asteroidea (starfishes), Echinoidea (sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea biscuits), and Holothuroidea (sea cucumbers).

Echinoidea Diadema Echinoderms are characterized by radial symmetry, several arms (5 or more, mostly grouped 2 left - 1 middle - 2 right) radiating from a central body (= pentamerous). The body actually consists of five equal segments, each containing a duplicate set of various internal organs. They have no heart, brain, nor eyes, but some brittle stars seem to have light sensitive parts on their arms. Their mouth is situated on the underside and their anus on top (except feather stars, sea cucumbers and some urchins).

Holothuroidea Holothuria Echinoderms have tentacle-like structures called tube feet with suction pads situated at their extremities. These tube feet are hydraulically controlled by a remarkable vascular system. This system supplies water through canals of small muscular tubes to the tube feet (= ambulacral feet). As the tube feet press against a moving object, water is withdrawn from them, resulting in a suction effect. When water returns to the canals, suction is released. The resulting locomotion is generally very slow.

Echinoderms are exclusively marine. They occur in various habitats from the intertidal zone down to the bottom of the deep sea trenches and from sand to rubble to coral reefs and in cold and tropical seas.

Some echinoderms are carnivorous (for example starfish) others are detritus foragers (for example some sea cucumbers) or planktonic feeders (for example basket stars).

Reproduction is carried out by the release of sperm and eggs into the water. Most species produce pelagic (= free floating) planktonic larvae which feed on plankton. These larvae are bilaterally symmetrical, unlike their parents (illustration of a larvae of a sea star below).

When they settle to the bottom they change to the typical echinoderm features.

Chordata Urochordata Ascidia The Urochordata, sometimes known as the Tunicata, are commonly known as "sea (Tunicata) squirts." The body of an adult tunicate is quite simple, being essentially a sack with two siphons through which water enters and exits. Water is filtered inside the sack-shaped body. However, many tunicates have a larva that is free-swimming and exhibits all chordate characteristics: it has a notochord, a dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, and a post-anal tail. This "tadpole larva" will swim for some time; in many tunicates, it eventually attaches to a hard substrate, it loses its tail and ability to move, and its nervous system largely disintegrates. Some tunicates are entirely pelagic; known as salps, they typically have barrel-shaped bodies and may be extremely abundant in the open ocean. Cephalochordata Branchiostoma With about twenty-five species inhabiting shallow tropical and temperate oceans, the Cephalochordata are a very small branch of the animal kingdom. Known as lancelets or as amphioxus (from the Greek for "both [ends] pointed," in reference to their shape), cephalochordates are small, eel-like, unprepossessing animals that spend much of their

time buried in sand. However, because of their remarkable morphology, they have proved crucial in understanding the morphology and evolution of chordates in general -- including vertebrates.

The anatomy of a cephalochordate is diagrammed at left. Note that cephalochordates have all the typical chordate features. The dorsal nerve cord is supported by a muscularized rod, or notochord. The pharynx is perforated by over 100 pharyngeal slits or "gill slits", which are used to strain food particles out of the water. The musculature of the body is divided up into V-shaped blocks, or myomeres, and there is a post-anal tail. All of these features are shared with vertebrates. On the other hand, cephalochordates lack features found in most or all true vertebrates: the brain is very small and poorly developed, sense organs are also poorly developed, and there are no true vertebrae. Vertebrata Hyperoartia Petromyzon Lampreys are anadromous or fresh water, eel-shaped jawless fishes. They can be readily recognized by the large, rounded sucker which

surrounds their mouth and by their single "nostril" on the top of their head. The skin of lampreys is entirely naked ans slimy, and their seven gill openings extend behind the eyes. Whether marine or fresh water, lampreys always spaw and lay eggs in brooks and rivers. During most of their life (about seven years), they are larval; then they undergo a metamorphose and become an adult. Anadromous lampreys, when adult, return to the sea, where they become mature, and live there for one or two years. Then they return to rivers, reproduce and generally die.

Many lampreys are parasites. They attach on other fishes by means of their sucker, scrape their skin with their rasping tongue, and suck their blood. All lampreys, however can also feed on small invertebrates. The sucker is also for them a means to travel upstreams in rivers. They use it to attach on stones to rest (Petromyzon, the name of the European lamprey, means "stone sucker") or on more powerful fishes which trail them. Although lampreys are sometimes regarded as a delicacy and fished in Europe, the main cause of their disappearance is water pollution, to which they (in particular larvae) are particularly sensitive.

Lampreys are characterized by: • A large sucker surrounding the mouth, strengthened by an annular cartilage. • Spine-shaped processes on gill arches • Lampreys are also unique among extant vertebrates in having a median dorsal "nostril", the nasohypophysial opening, but some other fossil vertebrates also display the same structure. It is therefore not diagnostic of lampreys only. • Lampreys are devoid of a mineralized skeleton, although traces of globular calcified cartilage may occur in the endoskeleton. Gnathostomata Chondrichthyes Carcharodon The Chondrichthyes or cartilaginous fishes are a major class of jawed fish that includes the sharks, rays, and skates, and whose skeleton is characterized by rubbery cartilage, which is very light and flexible, rather than bone, as in the bony fishes (class Osteichthyes (such as cod

or salmon)). The chondrichthyans have jaws, paired fins, paired nostrils, scales, and two-chambered hearts.

The taxonomy of Chondrichthyes reveals both the connectedness of living organisms and the diversity in nature. The Chondrichthyes, Dayatis because of sharing common origin, all share particular features. However, at the same time, they reveal a great diversity in forms, from the fusiform great white shark, hammerhead shark and sawfishes, to the flattened, disc-like stingrays and skates, to the electric rays with powerful electrical organs. This diversity helps to add to the wonder and beauty of creation experienced by humans.

Apristurus As fish, members of Chondrichthyes are poikilothermic (cold-blooded),

water dwelling vertebrates with gills throughout life, and limbs in the form of fins. Poikilothermic refers to the fact that the internal temperatures of fish vary, often matching the ambient temperature of the environment.

Chondrichthyans are characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton. The cartilage is often partly calcified (mineralized with calcium, making it harder and more bone-like, but it is seldom if ever ossified.

Both swim bladder and lungs are absent in members of Chondrichthyes. Condrichthyans have digestive systems with intestinal spiral valves, and with the exception of Holocephali, they also have a cloaca. A spiracle is found behind each eye on most species.

As they do not have bone marrow, red blood cells are produced in the spleen and special tissue around the gonads. They are also produced in an organ called Leydig's Organ, which is only found in cartilaginous fishes, although some lack it. Another unique organ is the epigonal organ, which probably has a role in the immune system. The subclass Holocephali, which is a very specialized group, lacks both of these organs.

In the history of the class, the pectoral and pelvic girdles, which do not contain any dermal elements, were considered to originally not be connected. In later forms, each pair of fins became ventrally connected in the middle when scapulocoracoid and pubioischiadic bars developed. In rays, the pectoral fins have connected to the head and are very flexible.

The tough skin of chondrichthyans is covered with dermal teeth. Holocephali is an exception, as the teeth are lost in adults, and only kept on the clasping organ seen on the front of the male's head. These teeth, also called placoid scales or dermal denticles, making the skin feel like sandpaper.

The oral teeth are usually not fused to the jaws, but are replaced serially. It typically is assumed that their oral teeth evolved from dermal denticles that migrated into the mouth, but it could be the other way around as the teleost bony fish, Denticeps clupeoides, has most of its head covered by dermal teeth (as do probably Atherion elymus, another bony fish). This is most probably a secondary evolved characteristic, which means there is not necessarily a connection between the teeth and the original dermal scales. The old placoderms did not have teeth at all, but had sharp bony plates in their mouth.

Modern forms practice internal fertilization, with males with pelvic claspers that are inserted into the female cloaca and oviducts. The embryo is encapsulated in a leather-like case and gestation periods of up to two years are known, which is longer than any vertebrate.

Osteichthyes Actinopterygii Acipenser

Barbus

Anguilla

Salmo

Sarcopterygii Dipnoi Protopterus

Coelacanthimor- Latimeria pha

Tetrapoda SEE BELOW

TETRAPODA Amphibi Caudata Salamandra To identify an animal as an amphibian, it should have each of these characteristics: a • Amphibians have a backbone. They are vertebrates. • Amphibians are cold-blooded. They cannot regulate their own body temperature. • Amphibians spend at least part of their lives in water and on land. • Amphibians do not have scales and their skin is permeable (molecules and gases can pass through). • Amphibians have gills for at least part of their lives. Some species have gills only as larvae, while others can have gills throughout their lives. Anura Rana • Most amphibians go through metamorphosis. • Amphibians are frogs, toads, salamanders, caecilians and newts.

Amniota Testudine Testudo Turtles (including tortoises and terrapins) are characterized by a shell that completely encloses both of the limb

s girdles. The shell is composed of a dorsal carapace of dermal bone that incorporates endochondral contributions from the vertebrae and ribs and a ventral plastron of clavicles and interclavicles anteriorly and abdominal ribs posteriorly. No turtles have teeth on their jaws, and all have the external ear supported by a large, semicircular quadrate.

Diapsida Squamata Gekko The Squamata, or the scaled reptiles, are the largest recent order of reptiles, comprising all lizards and snakes.

Two characteristics that unite the squamates. The first is that they shed their skin periodically. Some squamates, such as snakes, shed their skin in one piece. Other squamates, such as many lizards, shed their skin in patches. In contrast, non-squamate reptiles regenerate their scales by other means—for example crocodiles shed a single scale at a time while turtles do not shed the scales that cover their carapace and instead add new layers from beneath.

Phyton The second characteristic shared by squamates is their uniquely jointed skulls and jaws, which are both strong and flexible. The extraordinary jaw mobility of squamates enables them to open their mouths very wide and in doing so, consume large prey. Additionally, the strength of their skull and jaws provides squamates with a powerful bite grip.

Archosauria Crocodyliamorpha Crocodylus Crocodylomorpha is a group of archosaurs that includes the crocodilians and their extinct relatives.

Aves Pallaeognathae Struthio

Galloanserae Gallus

Neoaves Columba

Passer

Apus

Dendrocopos

Mammalia Monotremata Ornithorhynchus Endemic to Australasia - an important point to note as it means that they represent a whole subclass of extant mammalian life in a single geographic region. While the platypus is semi-aquatic, the echidnas are all terrestrial, and their respective distributions and habitats are as follows:

Platypus - Confined to Eastern Australia and Tasmania; freshwaters streams, rivers, and some lakes. Short-beaked echidna - Australia and New Guinea; most habitats, from semi- arid to alpine. Long-beaked echidna - New Guinea; mountainous terrain.

Features: • Males have a spur on their ankles, which bears poison in the platypus. • Toothless - platypuses have a leathery electrosensory bill, with crushing horny plates to break through the tough exoskeleton of arthropods; echidnas have an elongate horny rostrum with a long

sticky tongue for collecting insects. • A range of mammalian characters: o Produce milk (lactate) from mammary glands. However, while therians have nipples, monotremes do not, and consequently the young suck milk from patches of mammary hairs - specialised areas of fur positioned around the ventral openings of the mother's mammary glands. o Epipubic bones - two thin rod-like bones extending anteriorly from the pubic bones of the pelvic girdle. o Lower jaw (mandible) made up of a single bone, the tooth- bearing dentary. o A middle ear formed of three bones: the incus, malleus, and stapes. While the stapes is present in the middle ear of all living tetrapods, the incus and malleus are modified bones from the typical amniote jaw joint. The jaws of non- mammalian amniotesarticulate via the quadrate of the upper jaw, and the articular of the lower jaw; in mammals, the quadrate migrated to form the incus, while the articular became the malleus, leaving a jaw joint formed of the dentary articulating with the squamosal (the angular bone of the non- mammalian amniote lower jaw is used as a bony support for the eardrum in mammals). The following diagram illustrates these differences:

Marsupialia Macropus Marsupials are the group of mammals commonly thought of as pouched mammals (like the wallaby and kangaroo at left). They give live birth, but they do not have long gestation times like placental mammals. Instead, they give birth very early and the young animal, essentially a helpless embryo, climbs from the mother's birth canal to the nipples. There it grabs on with its mouth and continues to develop, often for weeks or months depending on the species. The short gestation time is due to having a yolk-type placenta in the mother marsupial. Placental mammals nourish the developing embryo using the mother's blood supply, allowing longer gestation times.

Like other mammals, the marsupials are covered with hair. Mothers nurse their young — a young kangaroo may nurse even when it has grown almost to the mother's size.

Eutheria Xenarthra Bradypus The superorder Xenarthra is a group of placental mammals, extant today only in the Americas and represented by anteaters, tree sloths, and armadillos. Xenarthrans share several characteristics not present in other placental mammals. The name Xenarthra, which means "strange joints", was chosen because their vertebral joints have extra articulations unlike other mammals. This trait is referred to as "xenarthry".

Also, unlike other mammals, the ischium and sacrum are fused. The males have internal testicles, which are located between the bladder and the rectum. Furthermore, xenarthrans have the lowest metabolic rates among the therians.

Lagomorpha Lepus Lagomorphs are similar to other mammals in that they all have hair, four limbs (i.e., they are tetrapods), and mammary glands and are endothermic. They differ in that they have a mixture of "primitive" and "advanced" physical traits.

Lagomorphs differ from rodents in that the former have four incisors in the upper jaw (not two, as in the Rodentia) and have enamel on the front and back of the incisors, whereas rodents have enamel only on the front. Also, lagomorphs are almost strictly herbivorous, unlike rodents, many of which will eat both meat and vegetable matter. They resemble rodents, however, in that their incisor teeth grow continuously throughout their lives, thus necessitating constant chewing on fibrous food to prevent the teeth from growing too long. Rodentia Rattus Most people are familiar with mice, rats, hamsters, and guinea pigs, which are commonly kept as pets. The Rodentia also includes beavers, muskrats, porcupines, woodchucks, chipmunks, squirrels, prairie dogs, marmots, chinchillas, voles, lemmings, and many others.

Rodents have a single pair of incisors in each jaw, and the incisors grow continually throughout life. The incisors have thick enamel layers on the front but not on the back; this causes them to retain their chisel shape as they are worn down. Behind the incisors is a large gap in the tooth rows, or diastema; there are

no canines, and typically only a few molars at the rear of the jaws. Rodents gnaw with their incisors by pushing the lower jaw forward, and chew with the molars by pulling the lower jaw backwards. In conjunction with these chewing patterns, rodents have large and complex jaw musculature, with modifications to the skull and jaws to accommodate it. Like some other mammal taxa, but unlike rabbits and other lagomorphs, male rodents have a baculum (penis bone). Most rodents are herbivorous, but some are omnivorous, and others prey on insects. Primates Cercopithecus Primates are characterized by large brains relative to other mammals, as well as an increased reliance on stereoscopic vision at the expense of smell, the dominant sensory system in most mammals. These features are more developed in monkeys and apes and noticeably less so in lorises and lemurs. Three-color vision has developed in some primates. Most also have opposable thumbs and Pan some have prehensile tails.

Many species are sexually dimorphic; differences include body mass, canine tooth size, and coloration. Primates have slower

rates of development than other similarly sized mammals and reach maturity later, but have longer lifespans. Depending on the species, adults may live in solitude, in mated pairs, or in groups of up to hundreds of members.

Chiroptera Pteropus Bats are unique among mammals as they are the only group to have evolved true powered flight. Some other mammals such as "flying" squirrels and "flying" lemurs can glide through the air for long distances, but they are not capable of Phyllostomus sustained flight. In contrast, bats can propel themselves with their wings, gaining and loosing altitude and flying for long periods.

Bats are nocturnal and usually spend the daylight hours roosting in caves, rock crevices, trees, or manmade structures such as houses and/or bridges. Some bats are solitary, while others are found in colonies that may include over a million individuals.

Activity begins around dusk, when bats leave the day roost and start

feeding. The clade Chiroptera includes species with very diverse food preferences, including bats that eat either meat, insects, fish, fruit, nectar, or a variety of food types. Only three species of bats actually feed on blood Desmodontinae). Many bats remain at their feeding sites until just before dawn when they return to the day roost. Eulipothyphla Sorex These animals have long pointed snouts, small ears which are often not visible and scent glands located on the side of the body. As their eyesight is generally poor, they rely on hearing and smell to locate their prey, mainly insects. Some species also use echolocation. It is often difficult to distinguish between species without examining the dental pattern.

In some species, a female shrew and her dependent young form "caravans", in which each shrew grasps the rear of the shrew in front, when changing location. Carnivora Panthera Carnivorans all share the same arrangement of teeth in which the last upper premolar (named P4) and the first lower molar (named m1) have blade-like enamel crowns that work together as carnassial teeth to shear meat. Carnivorans have had

Canis this arrangement for over 60 million years with many adaptions, and these dental adaptions help identify carnivoran species and groupings of species.

It includes cats; lions; tigers; panthers; dogs; wolves; jackals; bears; raccoons; skunks; and members of the suborder Pinnipedia. Cetartiodactyla Sus Cetartiodactyla is a group comprised of two orders of mammals that are superficially quite different and that, until recently, were recognized as two separate monophyletic clades. These orders are Artiodactyla, even- toed ungulates, including animals

Cervus such as cows (Bovidae), camels (Camelidae), and deer (Cervidae), and Cetacea, a group of mammals that are highly specialized for an aquatic lifestyle, including baleen whales and toothed whales.

Because cetaceans are so highly specialized for their aquatic lifestyle, they bear little resemblance to their artiodactyl ancestors. They have Giraffe nearly hairless, fusiform bodies.

They lack hind limbs except for tiny internal pelvic vestiges, and the forelimbs are modified into streamlined flippers. The tail bears a flattened fluke. In addition, cetacean skulls are highly modified so that the nares are located on the top of the head. On the other hand, most Camelus artiodactyls are specialized for cursorial locomotion, with long, hoofed limbs, and they lack the extreme aquatic specializations found in cetaceans. Most cetartiodactyls are relatively large animals, but there is an enormous range of body sizes in this group.

Blue whales, Balaenoptera musculus, are the largest animals on earth, growing over 27 meters in length and weighing over 190,000 kg, whereas the smallest artiodactyl, the lesser mouse deer (Tragulus javanicus), is just 45 cm long and Bison weighs 2 kg. Many species of cetartiodactyls exhibit sexual dimorphism, with males larger than females or vice versa. Also, male artiodactyls often bear antlers or large horns, and some male cetartiodactyls (narwhals (Monodon monoceros), tragulids, and suids) bear large tusks. Orcinus

Balaenoptera

Perissodactyla Tapirus Perissodactyla, as we know it today, is a small order of hoofed mammals, containing 17 Recent species in three families: Equidae (horses), Tapiridae (tapirs), and Rhinocerotidae (rhinoceroses).

Equus

In all species, digit III is the most prominent on all feet, and, as the plane of symmetry of the foot passes through this digit, perissodactyls are said to have a mesaxonic foot. The first digit (equivalent the thumb or big toe of humans) is lost in all species. The Equidae have a single functional toe on each foot (the third digit), while the Rhinocerotidae have three toes per foot. The Tapiridae - the closest family to the ancestral perissodactyl condition - possess Rhinoceros four toes on the forefeet (digit V is used on wet or marshy ground) and three on the hind. Perissodactyls are truly unguligrade, with the heel, sole, and digits of the foot never touching the ground. The ulna and fibula (bones in the forearm and lower leg) are reduced, simplifying the wrist/ankle joint considerably. The clavicle (collar bone) is absent, allowing for efficient running - the main driving force behind unguligrade evolution. Proboscidea Elephas Later proboscideans are distinguished by tusks and long, muscular trunks; these features are less developed or absent in early proboscideans.

Respiratory General Characteristics Subphylum Class Examples Symmetry Tissues Coelome Circulatory System Nervous System Digestive System System and Key Words Have all of the developmental characteristics of other chordates, but lack Tunicates, vertebrae. Have been Urochordata and lancelets Triploblasts, Alimentary canal, extensively studied to exam Cephalochordata n/a Bilateral Coelomate heart Primitive ? (amphioxus), sea eumatazoa one way the origin of vertebrates. (amphioxus) squirts Tunicates live in benthic habitats. Lancelets keep notochord through adulthood, tunicates only have it as larvae. Notochord found in larvae Triploblasts, Vertebrata Fish (Jawless) Bilateral Coelomate Two chambered heart Complete, brain Gills Alimentary canal and adult, cartilaginous agnatha, lamprey, eumatazoa hagfish skeleton Jaws and teeth, reduced notochord with cartilaginous Fish Triploblasts, Alimentary canal, vertebrae (from here on: Vertebrata Shark Bilateral Coelomate Two chambered heart Complete, brain Gills (Cartilaginous) eumatazoa one way notochord is present only in embryonic stage, replaced by vertebrae in adulthood)

Triploblasts, Alimentary canal, Vertebrata Fish (Bony) Salmon, halibut Bilateral Coelomate Two chambered heart Complete, brain Gills scales, bony skeleton eumatazoa one way

No scales. Tadpoles live in Tadpole, frog, Gills aquatic habitats, have tails Triploblasts, Alimentary canal, Vertebrata Amphibia toad, salamander, Bilateral Coelomate Three chambered heart Complete, brain (juvenile), and no legs. Adults live in eumatazoa one way newt Lungs (adult) land habitats, have two pairs of legs and no tail Warm blooded, feed young Duckbill Mammalia Triploblasts, Alimentary canal, with milk, leathery eggs, Vertebrata platypus, spiny Bilateral Coelomate Four chambered heart Complete, brain Lungs (Monotremes) eumatazoa one way mammary glands with many anteater openings (no nipples) Warm blooded Mammalia Kangaroo, Triploblasts, Alimentary canal, Vertebrata Bilateral Coelomate Four chambered heart Complete, brain Lungs (homothermic), feed young (Marsupials) opposum eumatazoa one way with milk Warm blooded Mammalia Bat, whale, Triploblasts, Vertebrata Bilateral Coelomate Four chambered heart Complete, brain Lungs Alimentary canal (homothermic), fetus (Placental) mouse, human eumatazoa supported by placenta Mainly live on land, leathery Turtle, snake, Triploblasts, eggs, internal fertilization, Vertebrata Reptilia crocodile, Bilateral Coelomate Three chambered heart Complete, brain Lungs Alimentary canal eumatazoa cold blooded alligator (poikolthermic) Warm blooded Triploblasts, Vertebrata Birds Eagle, blue jay Bilateral Coelomate Four chambered heart Complete, brain Lungs Alimentary canal (homothermic), eggs in eumatazoa shells

Phylum (Class) Key Names Symmetry of Tissue Coelom Circulatory Nervous Respiratory Digestive Excretory Embryonic General Characteristics and Body Plan Organization System System System System System Development Examples Porifera Sponge Asymmetrical No true n/a None None None Intracellular None - Sessile, suspension feeders, aquatic habitats, earliest tissues (diffusion) (diffusion) digestion (via (diffusion) animals, can produce asexually (budding) or (parazoa) amoebacytes) sexually (hermaphadytes), used in production of antibiotics

Cnidaria Hydra, Radial Diploblasts, n/a None Nerve net, no None Gastrovascular None - Aquatic habitats, some have stinging cells jellyfish, true tissues (diffusion) brain (diffusion) cavity, two (diffusion) (nemotocysts), some have life cycle that switches sea (eumetazoa) way digestion between polyp and medusa forms, sexual or asexual anenome, reproduction, gastrovascular cavity acts as coral hydrostatic skeleton to aid in movement

Platyhelminths Flat worms, Bilateral w/ Triploblasts, Acoelomate None Two nerve None Gastrovascular Protonephridia - Can reproduce sexually (hermaphrodites) or trematoda, cephalization eumatazoa (diffusion) cords, anterior (diffusion) cavity, two and flame asexually (regeneration), mainly aquatic habitats, flukes, centralized way digestion cells parasitic lifestyles, most primitive of triploblastic tapeworm, ganglia (brain), animals, has organs. Tapeworms specifically don't planarian some have a true digestive tract, they just absorb food planarians around them. have eye spots

Nematoda Round Bilateral Triploblasts, Pseudocoloemate None Nerve chord None Alimentary None - Some have cuticle to prevent degradation by host worm, hook eumatazoa (diffusion) and ring (diffusion) canal, one way (diffusion) digestive system, longitudinal muscles, no circular worm, muscles, parasitic, not segmented trichina, C. elegans, ascarcis Rotifera Rotifers Bilateral Triploblasts, Pseudocoloemate None Cerebral None Alimentary Protonephridia - Not trule segmented, can reproduce sexually or eumatazoa (diffusion) ganglia (brain) (diffusion) canal, mouth and flame parthenogenetically, mostly freshwater w/ some and anus cells environments. Draw food and water into mouth by nerves beating cilia. extening through body Annelida Earthworm, Bilateral Triploblasts, Coelomate Closed Vental nerve None Alimentary Most have Protostome Segmented bodies, coelom is divided by septa, leech eumatazoa circulatory chord, anterior (diffusion) canal, mouth metanephridia sexual (hermaphrodites) and asexual (regeneration) system, ganglia (brain) and anus reproduction, longitudinal and circular muscles multiple pairs of aortic arches, distinct arteries and veins

Molluska Clam, snail, Bilateral Triploblasts, Coelomate Mainly Ventral nerve Gills Complete, Nephridia Protostome Visceral mass, calcium carbonate mantle, radula slug, squid, eumatazoa open chords and mouth and (tongue), aquatic or terrestial habitats, have octopus, brain anus, radula hemocoel cephalopod, gastropod Arthropoda Ant, Bilateral Triploblasts, Coelomate Open Fused ganglia, Spiracles One-way Malpighian Protostome Exoskeleton, jointed appendages, coelomates,three (Insecta) dragonfly eumatazoa circulatory ventral nerve and tracheal digestion, tubules pairs of legs, chitonous exoskeleton, more species system, chord tubes some have than any other phylum combined, metamorphosis hemolymph salivary glands

Arthropoda Spider, Bilateral Triploblasts, Coelomate Open Fused ganglia, Trachea or One-way Malpighian Protostome Exoskeleton, jointed appendages, coelomates, four (Arachnida) scorpion eumatazoa circulatory ventral nerve book lungs digestion, tubules and/or pairs of legs, land habitats system, chord some have coxal glands hemolymph salivary glands Arthropoda Lobster, Bilateral Triploblasts, Coelomate Open Fused ganglia, Some have One-way Terrestrial:use Protostome Exoskeleton, jointed appendages, coelomates, (Crustacea) crayfish, eumatazoa circulatory ventral nerve gills digestion, malpighian; aquatic habitats crab system, chord some have Aquatic use hemolymph salivary green glands glands

Echinodermata Starfish, Bilateral Triploblasts, Coelomate Open, no Nerve ring and None Complete, None Deuterostome Spiny, central disk, water vascular system, tube feet, sea urchin, (larvae), eumatazoa heart radial nerves (diffusion) mouth and (diffusion) sexual or asexual reproduction, closest related major sea fivefold anus phyla to chordates cucumber radial (adult)

Chordata Vertebrates Bilateral Triploblasts, Coelomate See the table above Deuterostome See 'Phylum Chordata' Sheet eumatazoa

LICHENS Parmelia Cladonia