Non – Chordata
Animals are studied in the branch Zoology. Father of Biology, Zoology & Embryology is Aristotle. There are 12,00000 species of animals present in world. Every year new 10,000 species of animals are added. These animals show different habit & habitats. Some are – Free living, Commensal, Symbiotic, Parasitic, Predators. Some common habitats are –
Terestrial – On land Fossorial – Burrowing
Scansorial – Climb on wall. Fresh water – In normal water
Marine – In Sea Benthic – Attached to bottom.
Pelagic – On surface Lentic – In running water
Lotic – In standing water Arboreal – On trees Aerial – Flying Oceanic or Abysal– In deep sea
Littoral – In intertidal zone
Planktonic – Inactively floating on surface
Nektonic – Actively floating on surface
Scientist divided animals in to groups or categories on the basis of similarties and dissimilarities of characters. It are known as classification.So in classification groups are formed. These groups are texa (singular – texon). Texon word was given by Meyer. These texa are – Kingdom – Phylum – Class – Order – Family – Genus – Species. Few words as supra, sub & infra are used to increase number of texa.
Largest taxon is Kingdom. Smallest taxon is Species. Unit of classification is species. Classification is studied in taxonomy. Taxonomy word given by De Candelle. Taxonomy includes identification, nomenclature & classification of individual.
We cover the following Topics in Non Chordates: