Biology and Health Sciences

Apart from the two phyla; Chordata and Arthropoda, Kingdom Animalia comprises of other lower level organisms that belong to different phyla. These phyla include:
• Platyhelminthes
• Nematoda
• Annelida
• Mollusca
• Coelenterata

• Cnidaria
• Porifera/sponges
• Echinodermata
These animals are complex and therefore  are not studied at this level in details.

The main features that are used to group animals further into other phyla include;
• Body symmetry
• Type of skeleton
• The body form

Table 1.6 The different phyla, their main characteristic and examples of organisms in each.

Further Activity 1.16: Observing organisms in Kingdom Animalia and Classifying them
Requirements
• Specimen bottles or jars
• Forceps
• Pr e s e r ved sp e cimen of roundworm (Ascaris) and tapeworm in different petri dishes.
• Petri dishes
• Labels
• Gloves
Procedure
1. Visit a damp place around the school compound. Carry with you specimen bottles and petri dishes.
2. With your gloves on and using a pair of forceps, collect the following specimen; snail and earthworm.
3. Put the snail in a specimen bottle and the earthworm in a petri dish.Label them and take them to  the laboratory for examination.
4. Examine the specimens carefully with a hand lens.
5. Note the external features for each organism.
6. Construct a dichotomous key using the features you have noted in (5) to place each organism in the correct phylum.
7. Discuss the steps you followed to identify each organism and present your work to the rest of the  class.

Self-evaluation Test 1.3

1. Some of the impor t ant characteristics of some phyla belonging to the Kingdom Animalia are listed below. Against each characteristic, write the name of the phylum.
 (i) Animals with a two layered body wall enclosing a single cavity .
(ii) Animal whose gut has only one opening .
(iii) Simplest multicellular animals with a tube-like body and pores in the body wall .
 (iv) Unsegmented sea animals with an exoskeleton of spines .
(v) Animals with unsegmented bodies with tapering ends
2. Match the animals in column A with the phylum they each belong in column B.