Invertebrates

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Class: VII
...w here dreams come true Date:
Subject:
Science

More than one million animal species on Earth are invertebrates, or animals without backbones.
The absence of a backbone is the main trait that distinguishes invertebrates from vertebrates, or animals
that have backbones. Apart from the absence of a backbone, however, invertebrate groups have little in
common with each other; rather, they make up a highly diverse and largely unrelated group of animals.
Lobsters, insects, spiders, worms, jellyfish, clams, crabs, sea stars, sea urchins, and sponges are a few of
the most familiar invertebrates.

There are roughly 35 major group of living invertebrates. A few invertebrate phyla have only a few
known species, but some, such as the arthropod, have thousands of living representatives. They have been
recorded in the upper reaches of the atmosphere, in the driest of deserts and in the canopies of the wettest
rainforests. They can even be found in the frozen Antarctic or on the deepest ocean floor.
Among the largest and most important invertebrate phyla are Porifera (sponges), Cnidaria (jellyfish,
corals, and sea anemones), Platyhelminthes (flatworms), Nematoda (roundworms), Mollusca (snails,
bivalves, squids, and octopuses), Annelida (segmented worms), Arthropoda (horseshoe crabs, spiders,
crabs, centipedes, millipedes, and insects), and Echinodermata (sea stars and sea urchins).

Study the given flow chart carefully.

Identify the invertebrate phyla of the following animals.

1. Round worm _______________ ______________________________________

2. Cockroach ________________ _ ____________________________________
3. Spider _______________ ______________________________________
4. Jellyfish _______________ ________________________________________
 5. Octopus _______________ ______________________________________

6. Starfish _______________ ______________________________________

7. Earthworm _______________ ______________________________________
8. Coral _______________ ______________________________________
9. Sea urchins _______________ ______________________________________
10. Crab _______________ ______________________________________

Now study the key given below and answer the questions that follows:

• Is spider an insect? ____________

• Do worms have legs? __________
• How many legs does a harvestman have? ______________
• Which of the two has a segmented body? slug/roundworm
Give one difference between a millipede and a centipede.
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Give two similarities between a spider and a harvestman.
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The largest group of invertebrates is the arthropod group. What do all arthropods have in common?
a) They live on land, have an exoskeleton
b) They can fly and have jointed legs
c) They have segmented bodies and jointed legs
d) They have a skeleton and segmented bodies