Kingdom Animalia- Kingdom Animalia is also called as Metazoa
- Does not contain the prokaryotes or the protists - All members of Animalia are multicellular and heterotrophs (rely directly or indirectly on other organisms for their nourishment) - Most of the K.Animalia ingest and digest food in their internal cavity - Animal cells lack the rigid cell walls that characterze plant cells - Bodies of most animals are made up of cells organized into tissues and each tissue is further organized into specialized organs - Most Animals are capable of complex and relatively rapid movement compared to plants and other organisms - Most Animals reproduce sexually - Most Animals are diploid - Between 3 to 30 million species of animals inhabit in the Earth, only a rough estimate could be made - Range in size from microscopic animals such as plankton to massive blue whales. - Largest subgroup of animals is the insects - Animals are thought to have evolved from flagellate protozoa and the oldest animal fossils date back 600 million years, to the latter part of precambrian. - Most major groups of animals evolved during the Cambrian period |
Phyla of Kingdom Animalia |