Enrolled students and instructor-authorized guests have access to the syllabus,
etc., by this link.
(revised 4/7/03)
(revised 4/7/03)
Links to Web Pages for Invertebrate Phylogeny
This site not only has exhibits and articles on paleontology, but also
on the phylogeny and classification of living things, including animals.
This is a summary of the phylogeny of the higher taxa of living things.
Recently, some of the phylogenies have been removed pending incorporation
of recent findings. In the interim, it offers the simplified,
traditional, and now widely thought to be incorrect phylogenies of invertebrates
proposed in the textbook by Brusca and Brusca from about 1990.
Provided by University of Maine; many links are defunct.
This is an excellent, in-depth introduction to animal
phylogeny. It is a long article with many illustrations.
NEW!
This is a "Field Guide" which contains about 100 color photographs
made on the sea bottom or in the plankton of larger invertebrates of the
Antarctic oceans. While crabs and cephalopods are sparse, there are
many, wonderfully bizarre sponges, isopods, polychaetes, and gastropods.
The accompanying text discusses the sizes, feeding niches, depth and geographical
distribution, and general diversity of the animals.
Maintained by the University of Manchester (England)
for teaching. Discusses basic characteristics and phylogenetic
relationships of many invertebrate phyla and classes. I do not endorse
their "best estimation summary," a strange kingdom phylogeny of animals
included on their "Relationships" page.
Includes other links, summaries and
diagrams from recent research papers on several issues in the phylogeny
of lower invertebrates.
Louise Bush and Seth Tyler of the University of Maine
have p[roposed a complete classification of free-living flatworm species,
often with illustrations gleaned from obscure publications or unpublished
files.
This is a general discussion, with links to source papers that are often
in English. Near the bottom of the page, it links to a picture of
Ehler's 1985 phylogeny of Platyhelminthes, still widely but not universally
accepted This article is partly in response to a letter from
Tyler (see link "Taxonomy of Turbellaria" above),
Rieger and Smith criticizing a 1999 Science article by Ruiz-Trillo, et
al., that proposed a major revision of lower invertebrate phylogeny.
NEW!
This is a PowerPoint slide talk with a good explanation of the syncytial
(British spelling syncitial) epidermis and great scanning EM images of
the epidermis of adult tapeworms. It cites a 2001 reference for a
Platyhelminthes phylogeny in the early slides. Compare to notes for 2/10/03.
We normally think of polychaetes as free-living, but many dozens of species
live in close, even obligate relationships with other marine organisms.
This page links to a downloadable, Adobe Acrobat ",pdf" document, a preprint
of a published review paper with numerous illustrations and links.
Maintaind by Richard Howey of Wyoming, this is a
chatty tale of his surprised recognition of Trichoplax, the only
genus in the phylum Placozoa, in mixed marine material that he was scanning
for protozoans. Includes links to other sources and a good deal about
the biology and ecology of Trichoplax.
A good complement to the link immediately above.
An illustrated explanation of its distinguishing
characteristics, the importance of its discovery, and the ecology of Symbion
pandora, the first known cycliophoran. It is ectocommensal on
lobster antennae! It appears to be most closely related to Entoprocta
and Ectoprocta. It was named by R. M. Krstensen. The last phylum
to be discovered before Cycliophora was Loricifera, again by R. M. Kristensen
of Denmark, in 1983.
This is a rich site with many pages of information
and pictures of a new, small, gnathostomulid-like animal found in Arctic
springs by R. M Kristensen and his colleagues and students. It includes
a discussion of its relationship to three other phyla: Rotifera, Acanthocephala,
and Gnathostomulida. This may top Cycliophora as the most recently
discovered phylum.
Site maintained by Dr. Christian Emig of the Center
of Oceanology in Marseilles, France, in English as well as other languages.
Includes several, alternate phylogenetic diagrams of lophophorates and
related phyla.
Maintained by Dr. Phil Bock of RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia,
for the International Bryozoology Association, as part of a larger site
called "Paleo Ring." Has links to pictures of modern bryozoans
(= ectoprocts), as well as many fossils.
Text
portion of the C. elegans Web site, on a local server
Maintained by Sam Mozley (click here
to E-mail a message)
Last modified April 14, 2003