NON-CHORDATES
Kingdom Animalia or the Animal Kingdom is broadly classified into two groups, i.e., Chordates and Non-chordates.
Chordates are the animals those who have a notochord at some stage of their life. Similarly, Non-chordates are the animals those don't have notochord at any stage of their life.
Notochord (Gr., noton=back, L., chorda=cord) is a cartilagenous string or rod like stucture present along the back of chordates, at some stage of their life.
Sub-kingdom Non-chordata is further classified into 9 phyla, namely:
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Porifera
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Coelenterata or Cnidaria
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Platyhelminthes
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Nemathelminthes
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Annelida
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Arthropoda
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Mollusca
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Echinodermata
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Hemichordata
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Earlier, Phylum Protozoa​ was also included under Animal kingdom, but since, they are microscopic unicellular organisms, now a days it is studied under the phylum Protista.
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In the following sub-pages, you can get an elaborated idea about all above Non-chordate phyla.
