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Invertebrates
Web Quest
Top Porifera Cnidaria Platyhelminthes Nematoda Mollusca Annelida Arthropoda Echinaderma

Your mission, if you choose to accept it (and you should since your grade depends on it), is to use your text book and the internet links listed below to answer the following questions. You can also use other sites that you find on your own. Good Luck!!

General Questions

1) What is an animal?
2) What is radial symmetry? Name an animal that exhibits this symmetry.
3) What is bilateral symmetry? Name an animal that exhibits this symmetry.
4) What is the main difference between invertebrates and vertebrates?

8 Invertebrate Phyla

Phylum Porifera

1) What does the name Porifera mean and why is it an appropriate name?
2) What does sessile mean?
3) Give an example of a typical Porifera.
4) How do members of this phylum obtain their food?
5) Poriferas have cellular-level organization. What does this mean?
6) How does the circulation of water in a sponge:
        a) make feeding possible?
        b) make respiration possible?
        c) allow for the elimination of waste products?
        d) aid in reproduction?
7) How are sponges proving useful to medical science?

Get started on line with the following links:
Phylum Porifera
Invertebrates

Top Porifera Cnidaria Platyhelminthes Nematoda Mollusca Annelida Arthropoda Echinaderma

Phylum Cnidarians

1) What are cnidarians?
2) What are common cnidarians?
3) What are the two different life cycles of members of this phylum? How do they differ? How are they the same?
4) How are the tentables arranged in both forms?
5) What are nematocyts? What are they used for?
6) Most cnidarians are considered carnivores but many do not actually eat much. Why not?
7) Describe the reproduction of cnidarians.
8) How are cnidarians used in medical research?

Get started on line with the following links:
Phylum Cnidarians
Invertebrates

Top Porifera Cnidaria Platyhelminthes Nematoda Mollusca Annelida Arthropoda Echinaderma

Phylum Platyhelminthes

1) What are platyhelminthes?
2) What type of symmetry do they exhibit?
3) What is meant by unsegemented?
4) What is cephalization?
5) Members of this phylum are either free-living or parasitic. Give examples of each type and where you would find them.
6) Describe the reproduction of platyhelminthes.
7) What is "swimmers itch"?

Get started on line with the following links:
Phylum Platyhelminthes
Invertebrates

Top Porifera Cnidaria Platyhelminthes Nematoda Mollusca Annelida Arthropoda Echinaderma

Phylum Nematoda

1) What are nematodes?
2) What are common examples of this phylum?
3) Members of this phylum are either free-living or parasitic. Give examples of each type and where you would find them.
4) How does the digestive system of members of this phylum differ from those of flatworms and cnidarians?
5) Name and describe two diseases caused by nematodes.
6) What is River Blindness?

Get started on line with the following links:
Phylum Nematoda
Invertebrates

Top Porifera Cnidaria Platyhelminthes Nematoda Mollusca Annelida Arthropoda Echinaderma

Phylum Mollusca

1) What are mollusks? Name some common examples of this phylum?
2) How are mollusks classified?

3) What is calcium carbonate and why is it important to mollusks?
4) Describe the feeding mechanism of mollusks (what is the radula?)
5) Classify mollusks according to their feeding habits (carnivore, herbivore, etc). What do they eat?
6) Are mollusks sessile or motile (or both).
7) Describe the reproductive strategies of mollusks.
        a) What is an advantages of this reproductive strategy?
        b) What is a disadvantage of this reproductive strategy?
8) Identify mollusks that use a gastropod for movement.
9) Identify mollusks that lack a protective shell. What do these members have that other mollusks lack?
10) Describe how mollusks are used as indicators of environmental pollution.


Get started on line with the following links:
Phylum Mollusca
Invertebrates

Top Porifera Cnidaria Platyhelminthes Nematoda Mollusca Annelida Arthropoda Echinaderma

Phylum Annelida

1) What are annelids? What are members of this phylum commonly called?
2) What are common examples of this phylum?

3) Classify mollusks according to their feeding habits (carnivore, herbivore, etc). What do they eat?
4) Describe the reproductive strategies of mollusks.
5) Describe the habitats of most annelids.
6) Leeches are well-known annelids. Describe the medicinal uses of these organisms.

Get started on line with the following links:

Phylum Annelids
Invertebrates
Top Porifera Cnidaria Platyhelminthes Nematoda Mollusca Annelida Arthropoda Echinaderma

Phylum Arthropoda

1) What are arthropods? What are members of this phylum commonly called?
2) What structural features do all arthropods have in common?

3) What does the habitat of most arthropods seem to be?
4) Classify arthropods according to their feeding habits (carnivore, herbivore, etc). What do they eat?
5) Describe reproduction of arthropods.
6) Why must arthropods go through the process of molting?
7) What is meant by metamorphosis? Contrast incomplete and complete metamorphosis. Give an example of an animal that does incomplete metamorphosis. Give an example of an animal that does complete metamorphosis.
8) What are arachnids and what do they seem to have in common?
9) What is the main purpose of insect communication?
10) Describe the medicinal uses of arthropods.

Get started on line with the following links:

Phylum Arthropoda
Invertebrates

Top Porifera Cnidaria Platyhelminthes Nematoda Mollusca Annelida Arthropoda Echinaderma

Phylum Echinodermata

1) What are echinoderms? Name some organisms that are echinoderms.
2) Why are echinoderms usually not a source of food for most animals?
3) What types of feeding mechanisms do members of this phylum employ?
4) Describe the reproductive strategies of echinoderms.
5) Why is tearing a starfish apart and throwing it back into the water not a good way to limit starfish population?

Get started on line with the following links:

Phylum Echniodermata
Invertebrates

Top Porifera Cnidaria Platyhelminthes Nematoda Mollusca Annelida Arthropoda Echinaderma

As a final step in this web quest, you are to compose a letter to Governor Barnes proposing an invertebrate (of your choice) be elected the State Animal of Georgia. You must include the taxonomic information of your invertebrate (KPCOFGS) and detail the importance and relevancy of this animal - why do you believe this animal should be Georgia's state animal? What does this organism do for us or for the state? This essay will be graded with the writing rubric.

Specifications

1-1 1/2 pages

Double spaced

12 point Times New Roman font

Be sure to follow the characteristics of a good essay as described in the writing rubric.