Invertebrate zoology
Invertebrate zoology is the biological discipline that consists of the study of invertebrate animals, i.e. animals without a backbone (a structure which is found only in fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.)
Invertebrates are a vast and very diverse group of animals that includes sponges, echinoderms, tunicates, numerous different phyla of worms, molluscs, arthropods and many additional phyla. Single-celled organisms or protists are usually not included within the same group as invertebrates.
Subdivisions
Invertebrates are 97% of all named animal species,[1] and because of that fact, this subdivision of zoology has many further subdivisions, including but not limited to:
- Arthropodology - the study of arthropods, which includes
- Arachnology - the study of spiders and other arachnids
- Entomology - the study of insects
- Carcinology - the study of crustaceans
- Myriapodology - the study of centipedes, millipedes, and other myriapods
- Cnidariology - the study of Cnidaria
- Helminthology - the study of parasitic worms.
- Malacology - the study of mollusks, which includes
- Conchology - the study of Mollusk shells.
- Limacology - the study of slugs.
- Teuthology - the study of cephalopods.
- Invertebrate paleontology - the study of fossil invertebrates
These divisions are sometimes further divided into more specific specialties. For example, within arachnology, acarology is the study of mites and ticks; within entomology, lepidoptery is the study of butterflies and moths, Myrmecology is the study of ants and so on.
References
- ↑ May, Robert M. (16 September 1988). "How Many Species Are There on Earth?". Science 241 (4872): 1441–1449. doi:10.1126/science.241.4872.1441. JSTOR 1702670. PMID 17790039.
External links
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