Invertebrate Animal Vocabulary

Question 1

Vertebrates

Answer 1

an animal of a large group distinguished by the possession of a backbone or spinal column, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes.

Question 2

invertebrates

Answer 2

an animal lacking a backbone, such as an arthropod, mollusk, annelid, coelenterate, etc. The invertebrates constitute an artificial division of the animal kingdom, comprising 95 percent of animal species and about 30 different phyla.

Question 3

Consumer

Answer 3

an organism that derives the organic compounds and energy it needs from the consumption of other organisms; a heterotroph.

Question 4

Ganglion

Answer 4

a structure containing a number of nerve cell bodies, typically linked by synapses, and often forming a swelling on a nerve fiber.

Question 5

Gut

Answer 5

the stomach or belly

Question 6

Coelom

Answer 6

the body cavity in metazoans, located between the intestinal canal and the body wall.

Question 7

Bilateral Symmetry

Answer 7

the property of being divisible into symmetrical halves on either side of a unique plane.

Question 8

Radial Symmetry

Answer 8

symmetry around a central axis, as in a starfish or a tulip flower.

Question 9

Asymmetry

Answer 9

lack of equality or equivalence between parts or aspects of something; lack of symmetry.

Question 10

Sponges

Answer 10

a primitive sedentary aquatic invertebrate with a soft porous body that is typically supported by a framework of fibers or calcareous or glassy spicules. Sponges draw in a current of water to extract nutrients and oxygen.

Question 11

Cnidarians

Answer 11

an aquatic invertebrate animal of the phylum Cnidaria, which comprises the coelenterates.

Question 12

Flatworms

Answer 12

a worm of a phylum which includes the planarians together with the parasitic flukes and tapeworms. They are distinguished by having a simple flattened body which lacks blood vessels, and a digestive tract which, if present, has a single opening.

Question 13

Roundworms

Answer 13

a nematode, especially a parasitic one found in the intestines of mammals.

Question 14

Mollusks

Answer 14

an invertebrate of a large phylum which includes snails, slugs, mussels, and octopuses. They have a soft unsegmented body and live in aquatic or damp habitats, and most kinds have an external calcareous shell.

Question 15

Open circulatory system

Answer 15

Open circulatory systems (evolved in insects, mollusks and other invertebrates) pump blood into a hemocoel with the blood diffusing back to the circulatory system between cells. Blood is pumped by a heart into the body cavities, where tissues are surrounded by the blood.

Question 16

Closed circulatory system

Answer 16

Closed circulatory systems (evolved in echinoderms and vertebrates) have the blood closed at all times within vessels of different size and wall thickness. In this type of system, blood is pumped by a heart through vessels, and does not normally fill body cavities. Blood flow is not sluggish.

Question 17

Annelid worms

Answer 17

The annelids include earthworms, polychaeta worms, and leeches. All members of the group are to some extent segmented, in other words, made up of segments that are formed by subdivisions that partially transect the body cavity. Segmentation is also called metamerism.

Question 18

Exoskeleton

Answer 18

a rigid external covering for the body in some invertebrate animals, especially arthropods, providing both support and protection.

Question 19

Compound eye

Answer 19

an eye consisting of an array of numerous small visual units, as found in insects and crustaceans.

Question 20

Antenna

Answer 20

either of a pair of long, thin sensory appendages on the heads of insects, crustaceans, and some other arthropods.

Question 21

Metamorphosis

Answer 21

(in an insect or amphibian) the process of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages.

Question 22

Endoskeleton

Answer 22

an internal skeleton, such as the bony or cartilaginous skeleton of vertebrates.

Question 23

Water vascular system

Answer 23

(in an echinoderm) a network of water vessels in the body, the tube feet being operated by hydraulic pressure within the vessels.