SALI – 75 AQs
1.
How did your categories change when you followed the biologists’ system of phyla? Did your
number of categories increase, decrease or stay the same?
2. Look carefully at how biologists group these animals into phyla. What types of characteristics
are used to group into phyla?
3. Animals without backbones are called invertebrates. How many invertebrate phyla do the
animals on your animal cards represent? List these phyla.
4. Reflection: What characteristics were most important to you when you grouped the Animal
Cards? How are these characteristics different from the ones that biologists use to classify?
What do you now think is the best way to group animals? Explain.
Biologists’ Grouping Based on Common Characteristics
Phylum
Common Characteristics
Cnidaria
Card 1
jelly
Soft body
Card 5
sea anemone
Water in and out of body provides
Card 9
red fan coral
oxygen and removes wastes
Stinging cells
Platylhelminthes
Card 3
tapeworm
Flat body
Card 4
planarian
Oxygen absorbed across body surface
Card 7
marine flatworm
No circulatory system
Card 13
bristleworm
Segmented body
Card 17
leech
Circulatory system with simple heart
Card 18
earthworm
Annelida
and blood vessels
Mollusca
Card 6
squid
Gills for respiration
Card 8
zebra mussel
Simple circulatory system with heart
Card 12
cowrie
Often has a shell
Card 2
Asian longhorn beetle
Outer skeleton
Card 11
tiger mosquito
Jointed legs
Card 15
shrimp
Circulatory system
Arthropoda
Simple respiratory system
Chordata
Card 10
Nile perch
Backbone
Card 14
nutria
Complex nervous system
Card 16
starling
Circulatory system
Respiratory system