Kingdom Animalia
Kingdom Animalia makes up all animals. The largest of the five kingdoms is the animal kingdom. Animals are multicellular eukaryotes. However, like plants, they do not have chlorophyll or cell walls. Therefore, the animal kingdom has a heterotrophic diet. Kingdom Animalia is divided into ten different subfiles based on their body composition or differentiation.
Some of the common animals and the members of this kingdom are:
Spider-man
Ant
Birds
Hedgehog
Squirrel
Mole
Monkeys
Wildfowl
Human (Homo sapiens)
Some of the animals that are classified as mammals are:
dog
cat
pig
Mammal
Fox
Hamster
Dogs, cats, mice, hamsters, and lobsters are classified as an animal kingdom. These animals are eukaryotic animals are the members of the kingdom.
Mammals, reptiles, and snakes are classified as the members of the mammals, which are classified as the members of the kingdom of the animal kingdom.
What are the 10 categories of kingdom Animalia
Human: Insects
Man is the most logical source of production for the animal kingdom. In addition to producing efficient tools, agriculture, medicine, sports, fire-fighting, as well as other useful things, humans are also responsible for eliminating the animal kingdom. Humans have used animal resources to produce goods that are put to non-animal purposes, hence destroying animal life. They have also used animal remains for food, textile, weaponry, and decoration.
Human: Plants
Plants are an ancient source of resources for the animal kingdom. As such, they may appear to be the natural enemies of the animal kingdom. However, there are a few plants in the animal kingdom such as the milkweeds of the family Molluginaceae that were capable of replacing animals as prey.
Porifera
These organisms possess no circulatory system, no digestion system, no circulatory system and no lungs. They are anemophiles that live by using water for respiration. These animals are not capable of piercing the skin with their teeth like many of the worms and crustaceans. It is known that the early poriferans had extremely short and thin tentacles as opposed to the long and swollen tentacles of their relatives. Thus, a similar evolution to the larval development of jellyfish led to the beginnings of animal development. Many species of ferns, horsetails and liverworts fall under the genus Porifera. The animals that live on sand, shells, crayfish and insects, are divided into two types. The first group includes leeches, water fleas, sand fleas, mud flatworms and sandbur flies.
Coelenterata (Cnidaria)
Subphylum Porifera
The Porifera are organisms that have no cell walls or secondary cell structures. They do not possess any means of nutrition. They were among the first to diverge from the animal ancestor.
Cnidaria
The Cnidaria are essentially eumetazoans, meaning they contain a network of external polyps. These polyps have no common nucleus. The external polyps are composed of concentric layers called cnidosacs. In the larval stage, the cnidosacs divide to form the polyps with the posterior section containing the mouth, anus, and anus. The polyps remain inactive during the juvenile stage, and only later in life when the larva hatches do they initiate movement.
Chordata
The Chordata are a large group of organisms that are composed of invertebrates.
Platyhelminthes
Kingdom Primates
Kingdom Primates represents the mammalian fauna, with the mammalian branch containing rodents, primates, bats and apes. Animalia contains about 4,500 known species of animals. The animal kingdom has been divided into six subphyla:
Phylum Apes
Monotremes
Mammalia
Laurasiatheria
Phylum Rodentia
Spiny Mouse family
Phylum Cetacea
Sperm whales and their relatives
Kingdom Carnivora
Kingdom Carnivora includes large carnivorous mammals. According to the National Geographic Society, all carnivorous mammals alive today are living within the kingdom Animalia. It is subdivided into two kingdoms: the monotremes and the marsupials. It contains two orders: Canidae and Viverridae, the latter being more closely related to the rabbits and hares.
Nematoda
Kingdom Sigmura
Kingdom Sigmura comprises mainly of predatory animals that like to eat other animals. These animals range from worms, insects, crustaceans, arachnids, molluscs, and spiders.
Sigmura can be classified into ten subphyla. These are as follows:
Extremoblastina
Omnivitricata
Heteropoda
Termitomyces
Stenopoda
Halodermata
Euensteiniota
Acanthophora
Ophidiomorph
Porifera
Kingdom Porifera consists of mostly of soil-dwelling animals which are unicellular and rather small in size. There are two subphyla in the kingdom Porifera; three phyla that include, crustaceans, arthropods, and nematodes, and the remaining ones are unicellular.
Kingdom Metamonida
Kingdom Metamonida encompasses mainly of insect, myriapods and annelids.
Annelida
Annelida has the largest number of species. Annelida are protists, they are characterized by a translucent, gelatinous body with no cellular walls and a flexible or curved body, that is formed of two or more eutherian life stages. Their cells have no nuclei or mitochondria and are called vesicles. They lack a nervous system and have no skeletal muscles or joint contractures. Annelida are related to jellyfish. Annelida is the only kingdom in the animal kingdom that has no more than two adult forms, each with its own ability to produce sexual cells. Annelida represents about 95 percent of all eukaryotic species. Annelida occupy all aquatic environments, including the vast majority of marine environments.
Arthropoda
Cnidaria
The Cnidaria consists of marine organisms. They are the most diverse phyla of the animal kingdom. Like animals, they also have a complete digestive system and different types of hosts for different purposes. They are a facultative parasitic phylum. They obtain their food by absorbing through their gills and feeding on a living host. The nekton is the animal kingdom’s main source of food. Other forms of food that they obtain are zooplankton and phytoplankton.
The animal kingdom comprises only a part of the fauna which is divided into 92 families in which only 5 of these are mentioned below:
1. Acanthodii (Acanthozoans)
2. Hydrozoans (Hydrozoans)
3. Cheilostomata (Bivalvia)
4. Ctenophora (Ctenophora)
5. Nematoda (Nematoda)
6. Arthropoda (Arthropoda)
To further analyse the classification of animal kingdom into subphyla, one must examine the systematics in the subphylum. The relationship between the subphylum and the kingdom is clearly evident in the phylogenetic tree of the animal kingdom. In turn, a phylogenetic tree of the animal kingdom of subphyla, when analysed in a historical perspective, divides into five major lineages namely, the gastrulomorphs, the molluscs, the arthropods, the cnidarians and the chordates.
Characteristics of animal kingdom
In terms of the size of their bodies and flexibility, the animal kingdom has an immense diversity of body shapes, sizes and appendages. Members of animal kingdom have also specialised in specific functions.
Echinodermata
According to Genus Paleocephalus, which includes the spiny echinoderms, are classified under Echinodermata. It consists of animals that have a shell or armor. A few examples of these include sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sea lilies, and sea stars.
When and where did the echinoderms exist on Earth?
Echinoderms probably started evolving early in the Cambrian period.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the exact times when echinoderms and the other kingdom kingdom are split into two are unknown. A few hypotheses are:
Echinoderms and the ancestors of the Chiroptera (birds) lived in the Paleozoic era.
Echinoderms evolved more than 360 million years ago. However, their history goes much further back than this.
Hemichordata
Amongst the seven phyla of the hemichordates are hemi, gammarids and arthrodireans. Hemichordates are closely related to vertebrates and molluscs. Two phyla of this kingdom are especially interesting.
The Gammarid a found in marine environments and feeds on small invertebrates such as copepods and midwater prawns.
The arthrodireans are found in marine and freshwater habitats and feed on marine invertebrates such as copepods and other zooplankton and epibionts (extremophiles).
The eight phyla of the hemichordates.
division 8. Chordata
Stramenopiles
Euarthropoda
Spirulida
Familiaea
Genus: Unio
Monotremata
Cnidaria
Microraptoridea
Unio limbatus) is seen in ocean depths.
Chordata
While the kingdom Animalia comprises all types of animals, the chordate animals comprise chordates that possess one or more neural tubes, one or more pairs of sensory organs in the head and along with the ganglion cells in the nerve cord. These nerve cords form the ganglion-fascicles that give the chordates their form.
The major subphyla are the Digenea, Chordata, Mimoskeleta and Neuroptera.
The first species of vertebrate to have been preserved as a single individual was Ichthyostega. This vertebrate has been discovered in 1850.
Author : Reginald Harangote
Reginald Harangote is the CEO and founder of Kingdom Institute.
Conclusion
On inclusion, animal kingdom is included into the chordate phylum.
Discussion
There are many controversies related to the division of animal kingdom.
Whether the tetrapod is a part of the Animalia or not.
Whether the worm is also an animal or not.
Whether the cnidaria is also a part of the Animalia or not.
The division of animal kingdom into phylum or phylum kingdom has also been controversial.
Does Leucotaenia have any group identity, which can be considered an animal kingdom?
No, Leucotaenia is not an animal kingdm, because its discoverers divided it into many different families including the Ophiacidae, Iridopterygii and Rhamphosomatidae.
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