Marine invertebrates
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Marine invertebrates are animals that inhabit a marine environment and are invertebrates, lacking a vertebral column. In order to protect themselves, they may have evolved a shell or a hard exoskeleton, but this is not always the case.
As on land and in the air, invertebrates make up a great majority of all macroscopic life in the sea. Invertebrate sea life includes the following phyla:
- Acoela;
- Annelida, (polychaetes and sea leeches);
- Brachiopoda;
- Bryozoa, also known as moss animals or sea mats;
- Chaetognatha;
- Cephalochordata;
- Cnidaria, such as jellyfish, sea anemones, and corals;
- Crustacea, including lobsters, crabs, shrimp, crayfish, barnacles, hermit crabs, mantis shrimps, and copepods;
- Ctenophora, also known as comb jellies;
- Echinodermata, including sea stars, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, sea cucumbers, crinoids, and sea daisies;
- Echiura;
- Gnathostomulids;
- Gastrotricha;
- Hemichordata;
- Kamptozoa;
- Kinorhyncha;
- Loricifera;
- Merostomata; also know known as horseshoe crabs;
- Mollusca, including shellfish, squid, octopus, whelks, Nautilus, cuttlefish, nudibranchs, scallops, sea snails, Aplacophora, Caudofoveata, Monoplacophora, Polyplacophora, and Scaphopoda;
- Myzostomida;
- Nemertinea (ribbon worms);
- Orthonectida;
- Phoronida;
- Placozoa;
- Porifera (sponges);
- Priapulida;
- Pycnogonida (sea spiders);
- Sipunculida;
- Tunicata, also known as sea squirts;
- Some flatworms of the classes Turbellaria and Monogenea;
- Xenoturbella;
- Xiphosura.
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