Phylum Totally Explained

Everything about Superphylum totally explained

In biological taxonomy, a 'phylum' plural: Φῦλα phyla) is a taxonomic rank at the level below Kingdom and above Class. "Phylum" is adopted from the Greek φυλαί phylai, the clan-based voting groups in Greek city-states. Phyla represent the largest generally accepted groupings of animals and other living things with certain evolutionary traits, although the phyla themselves may sometimes be grouped into superphyla (for example Ecdysozoa with eight phyla, including arthropods and roundworms; and Deuterostomia with the echinoderms, chordates, hemichordates and xenoturbellae). Informally, phyla can be thought of as grouping animals based on general body plan; this is morphological grouping. Thus despite the seemingly different external appearances of organisms, they're classified into phyla based on their internal organizations. For example, though seemingly divergent, spiders and crabs both belong to Arthropoda, whereas earthworms and tapeworms, similar in shape, are from Annelida and Platyhelminthes, respectively. Although the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature allows the use of the term "Phylum" in reference to plants, the term "Division" is almost always used by botanists.
The best known animal phyla are the Mollusca, Porifera, Cnidaria, Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Arthropoda, Echinodermata, and Chordata, the phylum to which humans belong. Although there are approximately 35 phyla, these nine include the majority of the species. Many phyla are exclusively marine, and only one phylum is entirely absent from the world's oceans: the Onychophora or velvet worms. The most recently discovered phylum is Cycliophora found in 1993; only three phyla were discovered in the last century.
The Cambrian explosion was a great flowering of life forms that occurred between roughly 530 and 520 million years ago; during this time organisms similar to, but not strictly members of, modern phyla existed; whilst some appear to be represented in the Ediacaran biota, it remains a matter of debate whether all phyla existed prior to the explosion. Over time the roles among different phyla have varied. For instance, during the Cambrian, the dominant megafauna, or large animals, were arthropods, whereas now the megafauna is dominated by vertebrates (chordata). The arthropods are still by far the most dominant phylum.

List of animal phyla

Phylum	Meaning	Group	Distinguishing characteristics	Species described
Acanthocephala	Thorny head	Thorny-headed worms	Reversible spiny proboscis	about 750
Acoelomorpha	Without gut	Acoels	No mouth or alimentary canal
Annelida	Little ring	Segmented worms	Multiple circular segments	about 15,300 modern
Arthropoda	Jointed foot	Arthropods	Chitin exoskeleton	1,134,000+
Brachiopoda	Arm foot	Lamp shells	Lophophore and pedicle	between 300 and 500 extant
Bryozoa	Moss animals	Moss animals, sea mats	Lophophore, no pedicle, ciliated tentacles	about 5,000 living species
Chaetognatha	Longhair jaw	Arrow worms	Chitinous spines either side of head, fins	about 100 modern species
Chordata	Cord	Chordates	Hollow dorsal nervous chord, notochord, pharyngeal slits, endostyle, post-anal tail	about 100,000+
Cnidaria		Coelenterates	Nematocysts (stinging cells)	about 11,000
Ctenophora	Comb bearer	Comb jellies	Eight "comb rows" of fused cilia	about 100 modern species
Cycliophora	Wheel carrying	Symbion	Circular mouth surrounded by small cilia	at least 3
Echinodermata	Spiny skin	Echinoderms	Five-fold radial symmetry, mesodermal calcified spines	about 7,000 living species and 13,000 extinct ones
Echiura	Spine tail	Spoon worms	Set of hooks at posterior end	about 140
Entoprocta	Inside anus	Goblet worm	Anus inside ring of cilia	about 150
Gastrotricha	Hair stomach	Meiofauna	Two terminal adhesive tubes	about 690
Gnathostomulida	Jaw orifice	Jaw worms		about 100
Hemichordata	Half cord	Acorn worms, pterobranchs	Stomochord in collar	about 100 living species
Kinorhyncha	Motion snout	Mud dragons	Eleven segments, each with a dorsal plate	about 150
Loricifera	Corset bearer	Brush heads	Umbrella-like scales at each end	about 122
Micrognathozoa	Tiny jaw animals	—	Accordion like extensible thorax	1
Mollusca	Thin shell	Mollusks / molluscs	Muscular foot and mantle round shell	112,000
Nematoda	Thread like	Round worms	Round cross section, keratin cuticle	80 000 – 1 million
Nematomorpha	Thread form	Horsehair worms		about 320
Nemertea	A sea nymph	Ribbon worms		about 1200
Onychophora	Claw bearer	Velvet worms	Legs tipped by chitinous claws	about 200 modern
Orthonectida	Straight swim		Single layer of ciliated cells surrounding a mass of sex cells	about 20
Phoronida	Zeus' mistress	Horseshoe worms	U-shaped gut	20
Placozoa	Plate animals			1
Platyhelminthes	Flat worms	Flat worms		about 25,000
Porifera	Pore bearer	Sponges	Perforated interior wall	over 5,000 modern
Priapulida	Penis	Priapulid worms	Retractable proboscis surrounded by	17
Rhombozoa	Lozenge animal	—	Single axial cell surrounded by ciliated cells	75
Rotifera	Wheel bearer	Rotifers	Anterior crown of cilia	about 2000
Sipuncula	Small tube	Peanut worms	Mouth surrounded by invertible tentacles	144–320
Tardigrada	Slow step	Water bears	Four segmented body and head	1,000+
Xenoturbellida	Strange flatworm	—	Ciliated deuterostome	2
TOTAL: 36				2,000,000-

Groups formerly ranked as phyla

Name as phylum	Common name	Current consensus
Craniata	—	Subgroup of phylum Chordata; perhaps synonymous with Vertebrata.
Cephalochordata	Lancelets	Subphylum of phylum Chordata
Cephalorhyncha	—	Superphylum Scalidophora.
Enterepneusta	Acorn worms	Class of phylum Hemichordata.
Mesozoa	Mesozoans	Divided into phyla Orthonectida and Rhombozoa.
Myxozoa	—	Severely modified Cnidarians.
Pentastomida	Tongue worms	Subclass of Maxillopoda of phylum Arthropoda.
Pogonophora	Beard worms	Part of family Siboglinidae of phylum Annelida.
Pterobranchia	—	Class of phylum Hemichordata.
Symplasma	Glass sponges	Class Hexactinellida of phylum Porifera.
Urochordata	Tunicates	Subphylum of phylum Chordata.
Vestimentifera	Vent worms	Part of family Siboglinidae of phylum Annelida.

List of plant divisions

Division	Meaning	Common name	Distinguishing characteristics
Anthocerotophyta	Flower-horn plants	Hornworts	Horn-shaped sporophytes, no vascular system
Bryophyta	Moss plants	Mosses	Persistent unbranched sporophytes, no vascular system
Marchantiophyta	Marchantia plants	Liverworts	Ephemeral unbranched sporophytes, no vascular system
Lycopodiophyta	Wolf foot plants	Clubmosses & Spikemosses	Microphyll leaves, vascular system
Pteridophyta	Fern plants	Ferns & Horsetails	Prothallus gametophytes, vascular system
Pteridospermatophyta	Fern with seeds plant	Seed ferns	Only known from fossils, mostly Devonian, ranking in dispute
Pinophyta	Sap/pitch plants	Conifers	Cones containing seeds and wood composed of tracheids
Cycadophyta	Palm plants	Cycads	Seeds, crown of compound leaves
Ginkgophyta	Ginkgo plants	Ginkgo, Maidenhair	Seeds not protected by fruit (single species)
Gnetophyta		Gnetophytes	Seeds and woody vascular system with vessels
Anthophyta (or Magnoliophyta)	Flower plant	Flowering plants	Flowers and fruit, vascular system with vessels

List of fungi divisions

Phylum	Meaning	Common name	Distinguishing characteristics
Chytridiomycota	Little pot mushroom	Chytrids	Cellulose in cell walls, flagellated gametes
Deuteromycota	Second mushroom	Imperfect fungi	Only reproduce asexually
Zygomycota	Yoke mushroom	Zygomycetes	Blend gametangia to form a zygosporangium
Glomeromycota	Ball mushroom	None	Form arbuscular mycorrhizae with plants
Ascomycota	Bag/Wineskin Mushroom	Sac fungi	Produce spores in an 'ascus'
Basidiomycota	Basidium Mushroom	Club Fungi	Produce spores from a 'basidium'

Further Information

Get more info on 'Superphylum'.

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