Marine Animals

Posted by John Blatchford Oct 2, 2007

My latest article (Marine Animal Life) builds on Invertebrate Classification and Animal Classification to start looking at the many types of creature that can be found on earth. So far only a very small number of animal types have been covered, but I will discuss many of the other phyla (about 30 left to go!) as I publish articles about some of their members. For example I intend to write an article about Sagitta elegans in the near future, and that will be the time to discuss the Pylum Chaetognatha.

Marine mammals illustrate a point that needs to be made. Many ‘groups’ of animals that we talk about (fish, worms, plankton etc.) do not have any taxonomic significance. There are; flatworms, round worms, segmented worms, acorn worms, thorny-headed worms, horse-hair worms and several more – each is a separate phylum – all they have in common is that they look ‘worm-like’. Just because animals look similar does not necessarily mean that they are closely related – there are soil burrowing amphibians (caecilians) that look remarkably like earthworms or small snakes – animals evolve their body form (looks) to suit their habitat and life-style. Animals that ‘make a living’ in the same way will often end up looking similar even when they are not closely related. (Bats and Birds spring to mind.)

If you would like me to cover any particular group of marine animals sooner rather than later you could email me or join in the discussion ‘Article Requests’. (I recently published an article about Horsehair Snakes - Phylum Nematomorpha - in response to a request.)