My First Four Animal Phylum Articles

Posted by John Blatchford Feb 23, 2009

My first articles as Feature Writer for ‘Zoology’ look at four of the least known animal phyla. I intend to continue this theme for a while, exploring some of the other weird beasts that few people have ever heard of – let alone seen.

Minor Phyla and Evolution

While the animals covered in these articles will rarely be of major significance to most people, they all help illustrate the challenges of classification and the way that our understanding of evolution is being deepened by research in molecular biology and genetics. Where possible I point to recent research and hint at where things might be going.

• Trichoplax adhaerans shows how a very simple body-plan might hide a complex ancestry.

• Symbion species show how very similar-looking animals might be very different from one-another when they are studied at the molecular level.

• Loriciferans open up the whole new world of ‘life between the sand grains’ and hint that many new phyla are probably waiting to be discovered (new species turn up here every day!).

• Horsehair Snakes are also pretty strange, and, while little is known about their genetics, the study of the way that these parasitic animals are able to influence the behaviour of their hosts is of potential value where human parasitic diseases are concerned.

Future Articles

I plan to write a few more articles about these unusual animal groups before moving on to some of the better-known ones, and, as usual, I would welcome any comments you might have. If you find any group of animal particularly fascinating then let me know, and I will put it on my todo list.