Classification of Kingdom
Animalia
By
Dr. Sabzar Ahmad Dar
Brief History
• Aristotle and his student Theophrastus (370-282 BC) made
the first attempt to classify organisms. They tried to classify the
plants and animals on the basis of their body size form, habit
and habitat.
• Aristotle who is known as the father of Zoology gave an
account of classification of animals in his book Historia
Animalium.
• Pliny (23-79 AD) introduced the first artificial system of
classification in his book ‘Historia Naturalis’.
• John Ray, introduced the term species. He divided animals
based on the presence and absence of blood. He also classified
animals based on presence of gills, lungs, claws, teeth etc. He
gave the definition for Species as ‘a reproducing unit’.
• Carolus Linnaeus, Father of Taxonomy developed
the Binomial System of nomenclature which is the current
scientific system of naming the species. He described about
5,900 species of plants in ‘Species Plantarum’ and 4200
species of animals in “Systema Naturae”.
• Protozoa: These are unicellular
animals. The only phylum included in
this group is Phylum Protozoa
• Eumetazoa: It is also called as
Metazoa. These are multicellular
animals with well-defined tissues in
the body
• Parazoa: This infra kingdom
includes Phylum Porifera.
• Radiata: It is also known as
Diploblastic. These are
Eumetazoans with primary radial
symmetry and diploblastic body.
The phylum Cnidaria is included
into his grade
• Bilateria: It is also known as
triploblastic. These are
Eumetazoans with bilateral
symmetry and triploblastic body.
This includes two divisions.
• Acoelomata: These are
Eumetazoans without
body cavity or coelom.
• Pseudocoelomata: A
body cavity is present
between the body wall
and the alimentary canal,
but it is not a true
coelom.
• Coelomata: They have
true coelom
