Invertebrate animals

All animals are members of the Kingdom Animalia, which is also sometimes called Kingdom Metazoa. All members of the Animalia are multicellular and heterotrophic, meaning they rely direcdy or indirectly on other organisms for their nourishment. Most animals ingest food and digest it in an internal cavity. 

Most animals are capable of complex and relatively rapid movement compared to plants and other organisms. Most reproduce sexually, by means of differentiated eggs and sperm. Most animals are diploid, meaning that the cells of adults contain two copies of genetic material. 

Animal cells lack the rigid cell walls that characterize plant cells. The bodies of most animals (all except sponges) are made up of cells organized into tissues, each tissue specialized to some degree to perform specific functions. In most cases, tissues are organized into even more specialized organs. 

Somewhere around 9 or 10 million species of animals inhabit the Earth. The exact number will probably never be known. And, since the origin of life on Earth, uncounted millions of species have come and gone, only a small number of which left behind evidence of their passing. 

Animals range in size from no more than a single cell to complex organisms weighing many tons, such as blue whales and giant squid. The majority of all animals inhabit the world s oceans, with fewer in fresh water and even fewer on land. 

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A major biological sink for CO9 that is often overlooked is the calcium carbonate shells of corals, molluscs, and Crustacea. These invertebrate animals deposit CaCOa in the form of protective exoskeletons. In some invertebrates, such as the sderaetinians (hard corals) of tropical seas, photosynthetic dinoflagellates (kingdom Protoctista) known as zooxanthellae live within the ani-... 

Carotenoids are essential to plants for photosynthesis, acting in light harvesting and especially in protection against destructive photooxidation. Without carotenoids, photosynthesis in an oxygenic atmosphere would be impossible. Some animals use carotenoids for coloration, especially birds (yellow and red feathers), fish and a wide variety of invertebrate animals, where complexation with protein may modify then-colors to blue, green or purple. ... 

Experiments on lower organisms not classed as protected animals (bacteria, fungi, plants, invertebrate animals). 

Pratt, H.S. 1935. A Manual of the Common Invertebrate Animals. P. Blakiston s Son and Company, Philadelphia. 854 pp. 

Even an invertebrate animal that gives no appearance of physical activity possesses a muscle that has a capacity of the Krebs cycle that is similar to that in a muscle of a young adult human. This is the radular retractor muscle of a mollusc, the wheUc. Whelks are found on the seashore they can use their radula continually for very long periods, up to 24 hours in some cases, to rasp flesh off, for example, a fish carcass. A simple dissection of a whelk readily reveals the radular retractor muscle, easily identified by its brilliant red colour. This muscle illustrates the principle that for muscles that are physiologically essential and have to work for long periods of time, the generation of ATP must be from the oxidation of a fuel which requires mitochondria and therefore cytochromes, which is why the radular retractor muscle is red. 

Invertebrate animals such as corals, jellyfish, and sea anemones are belonging to phylum Cnidaria. Corals are used as an ingredient in traditional medicine for treating various diseases such as pulmonary tuberculosis, asthma, chronic bronchitis, urinary diseases, and cancer (Gopal et ah, 2008). Corals contain mostly Ca and minor amounts of Mg, Fe, and P. Calcined corals or calcium extracted from marine corals have shown effective as therapeutic agent for controlling cancer, diabetes, and many other deadly diseases. Corals with high species diversity in the tropical oceans are often rich in bioactive molecules and preferential... 

Marine sulfated polysaccharides (MSPs), such as sulfated fucans (SFs), sulfated galactans (SGs), and glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) isolated from invertebrate animals, are highly anionic polysaccharides capable of interacting with certain cationic proteins, such as... 

Insulin or insulin-like material is also produced in ciliated protozoa, vertebrate and invertebrate animals, fungi, green plants,349 350 and even in E. coli.351... 

Many invertebrate animals are true facultative anaerobes, able to survive for long periods, sometimes indefinitely, without oxygen.145-147 Among these are Ascaris (Fig. 1-14), oysters, and other molluscs. Succinate and alanine are among the main end products of anaerobic metabolism. The former may arise by a mixed acid fermentation that also produces pyruvate. 

Plant terpenes may deter herbivores and attract pollinators. They may participate in competition among plants and may act as antibiotics, called phytoalexins, to protect plants from bacteria and fungi.84 In invertebrate animals terpenes serve as hormones, pheromones, and defensive repellants (Figs. 22-3,22-4). The terpene squalene is the precursor to sterols. Some terpenes are toxic. For example, thujone (Fig. 22-3), which is present in the liqueur absinthe, causes serious chronic poison-... 

Plants, invertebrate animals, aquatic vertebrate animals, and organisms that may be used in multispecies tests need... 

Stanley-Samuelson, D. W., Comparative eicosanoid physiology in invertebrate animals, Am. J. Physiol., 260, R849, 1991. 

Rather than attempt an exhausting review of this literature, this chapter focuses mainly on papers published after 1990 that offer new insights into the role(s) of biofilms on hard surfaces in inducing settlement of larvae of marine invertebrate animals. See Pawlik3 for a good summary of earlier literature on the role of biofilms in the recruitment of invertebrate larvae. It is probably valid to say that most, if not all, members of the common fouling communities that have become widely distributed around the world due to their transport on ships are initiated when their larvae respond to bacterial films on submerged surfaces.29... 

Man is capable of living on an all plant or all animal diet, although omnivory is most common in human societies. Animal foods may be divided into two major categories as far as we are concerned vertebrate and invertebrate. Although invertebrate animals may play a significant part in the diet of many human societies, there has been little work on invertebrate taste chemistry (except for shellfish) from a human consumption standpoint. Shellfish taste is primarily due to inorganic ions, organic acids, amino acids and nucleotides (44). 

Iwanaga, S., Lee, B.L. Recent advances in the innate immunity of invertebrate animals. J Biochem Mol Biol 38 (2005) 128-150. 

Lancelet is the common name for about 25 species of simple marine animals, which are classified between invertebrates (animals without backbones) and vertebrates (animals, like humans, with backbones). They have a stiff dorsal rod and a notochord, but no vertebrae or heart. Around their mouths, cirri and tentacles move like a bag of nervous worms. They share the same ancestry as amphioxus, as evidenced by their embryonic tongue-barred gill slits. 

Animals are separated into thirty-five phyla, only the more common of which will be discussed here (see Table 5.1). All but the Chordata are invertebrates, animals that have no vertebral column (backbone) nor a notochord, the primitive beginnings of one. Invertebrates inhabit all types of water, they fly, they burrow, and they crawl on the ground. About 98% of all living animals... 

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