Page 30 of 38 Natural Perspective The Animal Kingdom ( Animalia (Last modified: 13 May 2000)
The Animal Kingdom is at once the Kingdom most and least familiar to us. Almost all of the animals we commonly think of mammals, fish, and birds belong to a single subgroup within one of the 33 Phyla comprising the Animal Kingdom. On the other hand, over 100,000 species in some 25 animal phyla mostly small worms are so unfamiliar that they are virtually unknown to non-scientists. The same goes for several hundred thousand tiny insect-like species populating the Arthropoda phylum. All told, around 800,000 species have been identified in the Animal Kingdom most of them in the Arthropod phylum. In fact, some scientists believe that if we were to identify all species in the tropical rain forests the ranks of Arthropoda would swell to over 10 million species! Here are highlights of the larger members of the animal kingdom: Spinal Cords ( Chordata - All animals having a spine, including fish, mammals, birds , reptiles, amphibians, sharks, and eels are grouped into Chordata Because these animals are so familiar to us, biologists have come up with elaborate classification schemes including subphyla, superclasses, infraorders, and the like.
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