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Marine invertebrates



 
 
The term "marine invertebrates" is used to describe animals found in a marine
Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology....
 environment which are invertebrate
Invertebrate

An invertebrate is an animal lacking a vertebral column. The group includes 98% of all animal species ? all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum vertebrate ....
s: lacking a notochord
Notochord

The notochord is a flexible, rod-shaped body found in embryos of all chordates. It is composed of cell s derived from the mesoderm and defines the primitive axis of the embryo....
. In order to protect themselves, they may have evolved a shell or a hard exoskeleton
Exoskeleton

An exoskeleton is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to the internal endoskeleton of, for example, a human skeleton....
, but this is not always the case.

As on land and in the air, invertebrates make up a huge portion of all life in the sea.






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Haeckel Actiniae
The term "marine invertebrates" is used to describe animals found in a marine
Marine (ocean)

Marine is an umbrella term. As an adjective it is usually applicable to things relating to the sea or ocean, such as marine biology, marine ecology and marine geology....
 environment which are invertebrate
Invertebrate

An invertebrate is an animal lacking a vertebral column. The group includes 98% of all animal species ? all animals except those in the Chordate subphylum vertebrate ....
s: lacking a notochord
Notochord

The notochord is a flexible, rod-shaped body found in embryos of all chordates. It is composed of cell s derived from the mesoderm and defines the primitive axis of the embryo....
. In order to protect themselves, they may have evolved a shell or a hard exoskeleton
Exoskeleton

An exoskeleton is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to the internal endoskeleton of, for example, a human skeleton....
, but this is not always the case.

As on land and in the air, invertebrates make up a huge portion of all life in the sea. Invertebrate sea life includes:

  • Bryozoa
    Bryozoa

    Bryozoans are tiny colonial animals that generally build stony skeletons of calcium carbonate, superficially similar to coral . Members of the Phylum Bryozoa are known as "moss animals" or "moss animacules" or as "sea mats"....
    , also known as moss animals or sea mats;
  • Cnidaria
    Cnidaria

    Cnidaria Cnidarians were for a long time grouped with Ctenophores in the phylum Coelenterata, but increasing awareness of their differences caused them to be placed in separate phyla....
    , such as jellyfish
    Jellyfish

    Jellyfish are free-swimming members of the phylum Cnidaria. They have several different morphologies that represent several different cnidarian classes including the Scyphozoa , Staurozoa , Cubozoa , and Hydrozoa ....
    , sea anemone
    Sea anemone

    Sea anemones are a group of water dwelling, predation animals of the order Actiniaria; they are named after the anemone, a terrestrial flower....
    s and corals;
  • Crustacean
    Crustacean

    Crustaceans are a large group of arthropods, comprising almost 52,000 described species , and are usually treated as a subphylum . They include various familiar animals, such as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles....
    s, such a such as lobster
    Lobster

    Clawed lobsters compose a family of large marine crustaceans. Lobsters are economically important as seafood, forming the basis of a global industry that nets United States dollar1.8 billion in trade annually....
    s, crab
    Crab

    Crabs are Decapoda crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura, which typically have a very short projecting "tail" , or where the reduced abdomen is entirely hidden under the thorax....
    s, shrimp
    Shrimp

    Shrimp are swimming, Decapoda crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh water and seawater. Adult shrimp are Filter feeder benthic animals living close to the bottom....
    , crayfish
    Crayfish

    Crayfish, crawfish, or crawdads are fresh water crustaceans resembling small lobsters, to which they are related. They breathe through feather-like gills and are found in bodies of water that do not freeze to the bottom; they are also mostly found in brooks and streams where there is fresh water running, and which have shelter ag...
     and barnacle
    Barnacle

    A barnacle is a type of arthropod belonging to infraclass Cirripedia in the Subphylum Crustacean, and is hence distantly related to crabs and lobsters....
    s;
  • Ctenophora, also known as comb jellies;
  • Polychaete
    Polychaete

    The Polychaeta or polychaetes are a 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....
    s, including sea worm
    Sea worm

    Sea worm is a general term that may refer to a number of phylum of animals, or may refer specifically to:*Acanthocephala, parasitic worm*Annelida, segmented worms...
    s including flatworm
    Flatworm

    The flatworms, known in scientific literature as Platyhelminthes are a Phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, Segmentation , soft-bodied invertebrate animals....
    s, ribbon worms
    Nemertea

    Nemertea is a phylum of invertebrate animals also known as ribbon worms or proboscis worms. Most of the 1,400 or so species are marine, with a few living in fresh water and a small number of terrestrial animal; they are found in all marine habits, and throughout the world's oceans....
    , annelid
    Annelid

    The annelids, collectively called Annelida , are a large Scientific classification of animals comprising the segmented worms, with about 15,000 modern species including the well-known earthworms and leeches....
    s, Sipuncula
    Sipuncula

    The Sipuncula or Sipunculida, sipunculid worms or peanut worms, are a Phylum containing 144-320 species of bilateral symmetry, segmentation sea worms....
    , Echiura
    Echiura

    The Echiura, or spoon worms, are a small group of ocean animals. They are often considered to be a group of annelids, although they lack the segmented structure found in other members of that group, and so may also be treated as a separate phylum....
    , Chaetognatha
    Chaetognatha

    Chaetognatha is a Phylum of predatory marine worms that are a major component of plankton worldwide. About 20% of the known species are benthic and can attach to algae or rocks....
    , and the phoronid
    Phoronid

    Phoronids , commonly known as horseshoe worms, are a relatively small animal phylum: twenty species are known, in two genera, Phoronis and Phoronopsis....
    s;
  • Echinoderm
    Echinoderm

    Echinoderms are a Phylum of Marine animals . Echinoderms are found at every ocean depth, from the intertidal zone to the abyssal zone.Aside from the problematic Arkarua, the first definitive members of the phylum appeared near the start of the Cambrian period....
    s, including sea star
    Sea star

    Sea stars, also known as starfish, are echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea. The names "sea star" and "starfish" are sometimes differentiated, with "starfish" used in a broader sense to include the closely related brittle stars, which make up the class Ophiuroidea, as well as excluding sea stars which do not have five ar...
    s, brittle star
    Brittle star

    Brittle stars, or Ophiuroidea, are echinoderms, closely related to sea stars. They crawl across the seafloor using their flexible arms for locomotion....
    s, sea urchin
    Sea urchin

    Sea urchins are small, spiny, globular creatures that compose most of class Echinoidea. They are found in oceans all over the world. Their shell, or "test", is round and spiny, typically from 3 to 10 cm across....
    s, sand dollar
    Sand dollar

    Sand dollars are flat, round marine animals related to sea urchins , sea stars, and other echinoderms. The most common sand dollar, Echinarachnius parma, is widespread in circumpolar ocean waters in the northern hemisphere, from the intertidal zone to considerable depths....
    s, sea cucumber
    Sea cucumber

    Holothuroidea is a class of marine animals with an elongated body and leathery skin, which is found on the sea floor worldwide. Many holothurian species and genera, informally known as sea cucumbers, are targeted for human consumption....
    s, and crinoid
    Crinoid

    Crinoids, also known as sea lilies or feather-stars, are marine animals that make up the class Crinoidea of the echinoderms . They live both in shallow water and in depths as great as 6,000 meters....
    s;
  • Molluscs, including shellfish
    Shellfish

    Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton bearing aquatic invertebrate used as food, including various species of Molluscas, crustaceans, and echinoderms....
    , squid
    Squid

    Squid are marine cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, Symmetry #Bilateral_symmetry, a mantle , and cephalopod arms....
    , octopus
    Octopus

    The octopus is a cephalopod of the order Octopoda that inhabits many diverse regions of the ocean, especially coral reefs. The term may also refer to only those creatures in the genus Octopus ....
    ;
  • Sponges;
  • Tunicate
    Tunicate

    Tunicate, also known as urochordata, tunicata is the subphylum of a group of underwater saclike filter feeders with incurrent and excurrent Siphon s, that are members of the phylum Chordata....
    s, also known as sea squirts.


See also

  • Marine biology
    Marine biology

    Marine biology is the scientific study of living organisms in the ocean or other Marine or brackish bodies of water.Given that in biology many scientific classification, families and Genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies species based on the environment rather than on taxon...
  • Marine vertebrate
    Marine vertebrate

    Marine vertebrates are vertebrates which live in a marine environment. These primarily include fish, seabirds, marine reptiles, and marine mammals....