Invertebrate
From Palaeos.org
(Redirected from Invertebrates)
Introduction
"Invertebrates" - or animals lacking a backbone (sponges, jellyfish, molluscs, arthropods, starfish, etc etc) - are a generic category that includes all Metazoa, or even all Metazoa plus several unicellular eukaryote groups (which makes it a polyphyletic grouping), except for the Vertebrata. The vertebrates are actually just one derived clade of Metazoa among many, so the distinction between invertebrates and vertebrates is really a chauvinistic and anthropocentric one, which is still found in the scientific literature (e.g. invertebrate and vertebrate paleontology), but is no longer used in current taxonomy.
Credits
MAK070222
