Taxonomy of commonly fossilised invertebrates

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Although the phylogenetic classification of sub-vertebrate animals (both extinct and extant) remains a work-in-progress, the following taxonomy attempts to be useful by combining both traditional (old) and new (21st-century) paleozoological termonology.

So the paleobiologic systematics which follows is not intended to be all-inclusive or completely comprehensive. For practial reasons and relevancy, the below classification and annotations emphasize invertebrates that (a) are popularly collected as fossils and/or (b) no longer continue alive on this planet. Therefore, as a result, some phyla, classes, and orders of invertebrates are not listed. [1]

If a non-vertebrate animal is mentioned below using its common, vernacular, everyday name, the creature is usually a living, present-day invertebrate. But if, on the other hand, a non-vertebrate is cited below by its scientific, taxonomic genus (in italics), then it is typically an extinct invertebrate, known only from the fossil record. [2]

Invertebrate clades that are (a) very important as fossils (for example, ostracods frequently used as index fossils), and/or (b) very abundant as fossils (for example, crinoids easily found in crinoidal limestone), [3] are highlighted with a bracketed exclamation mark [ ! ].

Invertebrate groups that (a) are now substantially extinct, and/or (b) contain a large proportion of extinct species, are followed by a dashed notation [ -- such as this ]. But invertebrate clades which are now totally -- that is, 100 percent -- extinct are designated with a bracketed dagger/cross [ † ]:


Contents

[edit] Domain of EUKARYOTA / EUKARYA

(eukaryotes / eukaryans / all cellular organisms bearing a central, organized nucleus with DNA)

[edit] Sub-domain of OPISTHOKONTA

(opisthokonts / the animal-related kingdoms / the proto-spongal choanoflagellates, proto-fungal microsporidians, true fungi, and true animals

  • comprises most life forms documented as either living or deceased
    • excludes many molds, all one-celled protists (or protoctists), all algae, and all green plants

[edit] Kingdom of ANIMALIA / METAZOA

(metazoans / many-celled true animals / all invertebrates and vertebrates / multi-cellular creatures that grab and ingest their organic food)

[edit] Sub-kingdom of PARAZOA

(parazoans / typically-sessile, basal non-eumetazoans / the most-primitive animals / the simplest, colonial, attached, bottom-dwelling, marine invertebrates)

[edit] Phylum Archaeocyatha / Archeocyatha / Archaeocyathida / Archeocyathida / Pleospongia [†]

(cone-shaped archaeocyathids/archeocyathids / cup-shaped archaeocyathans/archeocyathans / reef-building pleosponges / calcareous "ancient-cups")

(includes fossil genera such Archaeocyathus, Cambrocyathus, Atikonia, Tumuliolynthus, Kotuyicyathus, Metaldetes, Ajacicyathus and Paranacyathus)

(Archaeocyatha is sometimes classified as a class of Porifera below)

[edit] Phylum Porifera / Nuda / Spongia

(quintessential true sponges / marine, colonial, pore-bearing animals / organized collar-flagellates / poriferans; today mostly siliceous) -- half of all documented species of Porifera are fossils and extinct [4]

(Porifera may eventually be broken up into separate phyla)

  • Sub-phylum Calcarea / Calcispongiae (primitive calcareous poriferans such as yellow lemon sponge, sphinctozoans, pharetronids, Scypha, Leucetta, Gravestockia, Grantia, Astraeospongium, Clathrina, Lelapia, Rhaphidonema, and Girtyocoelia)
    • Class Calcinea
    • Class Calcaronea
    • Class Stromatoporoidea / Stromatoporata / Stromatoporida / Spongliomorphida [†] (lime-layered stromatoporoids / reef-building stromatoporates / button-shaped stromatoporids / disc-shaped spongliomorphids; e.g., Stromatopora, Aulacera, Stromatactis, Actinostroma, Discophyllum, Parallelopora and Amphipora)
    • Class Heteractinida [†] (Paleozoic calcitic heteractinids such as Eiffelia)
  • Sub-phylum Silicea / Silicospongia (siliceous poriferans)

[edit] Phylum Placozoa

[edit] Sub-kingdom of EUMETAZOA

(eumetazoans / true metazoans / typically-mobile, multicellular animals)

(Eumetazoa contains most of the living and deceased species of recorded life, including most invertebrates (alive and extinct), as well as all vertebrate animals)

[edit] Super-phylum of RADIATA

(radiates / non-bilaterian eumetazoans)

[edit] Phylum Cnidaria / Coelenterata

(cnidarians / coelenterates)

[edit] Super-phylum of LOPHOTROCHOZOA / PROTOSTOMIA # 1

(lophotrochozoan bilaterians, such as flatworms, ribbon worms, lophophorates, and molluscs)

[edit] Phylum Bryozoa / Ectoprocta / Polyzoa

(bryozoans / moss animals) -- half of all documented species of Bryozoa are fossils and extinct [5]

  • Class Stenolaemata / Gymnolaemata [!] (mostly marine, calcareous bryozoans)
    • Order Cheilostomata [!] (living, rimmed-mouthed moss animals)
    • Order Cyclostomata (uncontracted, round-mouthed bryozoans including fossil Stomatopora)
    • Order Cystoporata [†] (extinct, minor group of moss animals)
    • Order Trepostomata [†] [!] (changed-mouthed bryozoans such as extinct Constellaria and Monticulipora)
    • Order Cryptostomata [†] [!] (round hidden-mouthed bryozoans such as Archimedes, Fenestrellina and Rhombopora)
    • Order Ctenostomata [†] (uncommon, comb-mouthed bryozoans)
    • Order Phylactolaemata (living, fresh-water bryozoans)

[edit] Phylum Brachiopoda

(lampshells, brachiopods or "brachs," not to be confused with the hard-shelled marine mollusks below) -- 99 percent of all documented species of Brachiopoda are now extinct

  • Subphylum Linguliformea (inarticulate atremates, such as "living fossil" Lingula) -- but mostly extinct
  • Subphylum Craniiformea (inarticulate neotremates, such as extant Crania) -- but mostly extinct
  • Subphylum Rhynchonelliformea [!] (articulate brachiopods with hinged valves; includes most extinct and living brachs)
    • Class Rhynchonellata [!]
      • Order Orthida [†] [!] (orthid brachs such as fossil Orthis)
      • Order Pentamerida [†] (pentamerid brachs such as Conchidium)
      • Order Rhynchonellida [!] (rhynchonellid brachs such as fossils Rhynchotrema and Rhynchonella)
      • Order Spiriferida [†] [!] (spiriferid brachs)
        • Suborder Spiriferinida [†] [!] (spiriferid brachs such as Spirifer and Eospirifer)
        • Suborder Atrypida [†] [!] (atrypid brachs such as Atrypa)
      • Order Terebratulida [!] (most living brachiopods; includes fossil Dielasma)
    • Class Strophomenata [†] [!] (so-called petrified butterflies)
      • Order Strophomenida [†] [!] (strophomenid brachs)
      • Order Productida [†] [!] (spiny or productid brachs)
        • Suborder Chonetidina [†] [!]
        • Suborder Productidina [†] [!]

[edit] Phylum Annelida

(segmented worms such as earthworms and leeches)

[edit] Phylum Mollusca

(molluscs or mollusks, not to be confused with the hard-shelled marine brachiopods above)

[edit] Super-phylum of ECDYSOZOA / PROTOSTOMIA # 2

(ecdysozoans, such as nematodes, horsehair worms, and molting bilaterians / panarthropods))

[edit] Phylum Tardigrada

(panarthropodic water bears)

[edit] Phylum Onychophora

(panarthropodic velvet worms, including proto-arthropodic fossils of Arthropleura and Aysheaia)

[edit] Phylum Arthropoda

(arthropods; jointed legged creatures with an exoskeleton)

[edit] Super-phylum of DEUTEROSTOMIA / ENTEROCOELOMATA

(second-mouthed bilaterians called deuterostomians, such as chordates and echinoderms)

[edit] Phylum Echinodermata

(echinoderms) -- 72 percent of all documented species of Echinodermata are fossils and extinct [7]

[edit] Phylum Hemichordata

(hemichordates such as extant acorn worms) -- Less than half of the documented species of Hemichordata are fossils and extinct

  • Class Graptoloidea [†] (extinct graptolites)
    • Order Dendroidea [†]
    • Order Graptoloidea [†]
      • Suborder Didymograptina [†]
      • Suborder Diplograptina [†]
      • Suborder Monograptina [†]

[edit] Phylum Chordata

(both invertebrate and vertebrate chordates; animals possessing a notochord)

[edit] Invertebrate subphyla

[edit] Subphylum Vertebrata

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ For superb anatomical illustrations and much-more comprehensive information, the aspiring paleozoologist should scan Volume E (Archaeocyatha / Porifera) through Volume V (Graptolithina), published 1953 to 2006 (and continuing), of the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, long-edited by Raymond C. Moore and Roger L. Kaesler (Boulder, Colorado: Geological Society of America; and Lawrence, Kansas: University of Kansas Press). But be warned that some terms therein employed -- such as supersubphylum -- can be unnecessarily wordy or obstruse. Incidentally, revised volumes have been recently published regarding the sponges/archaeocyatha (2004, ISBN 08137 31313) and the brachiopods (2006, ISBN 0813731356).
  2. ^ The names of genera, orders, classes and phyla have been culled from dozens of sources, both current and decades-old. See the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), as well as Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia (Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale Group), edited by zoologists Michael Hutchin, Dennis A. Thorney and Sean F. Craig (2003).
  3. ^ For correspondingly-ancient ecosystems, see the Treatise on Ecology and Paleoecology, Volume 2: Paleoecology, edited for years by Harry S. Ladd (1957 / 1971), and published by both the Geological Society of America (Boulder, Colorado) and the Waverly Press (Washington, D.C.).
  4. ^ The rates of extinction for sponges and other phyla are derived from W. H. Easton, 1960, Invertebrate Paleontology (New York: Harper and Brothers) and various modern sources.
  5. ^ For bryozoans and brachiopods, the same footnote as above.
  6. ^ For bivalves and cephalopods (both mollusks), see the above notation.
  7. ^ For the echinoderms, see the above footnote regarding W. E. Easton, 1960, Invertebrate Paleontology, and other sources.

[edit] See also