Child writing at desk

Factsheets

A Classroom Resource About Each Phylum

Factsheets

  • Komodo Sponge
    Factsheet
    Sponges: The Trailblazers

    Scientists believe sponges are the oldest animal phylum. They first appeared about 600 million years ago.

    Download Factsheet

  • Yellow anenome
    Factsheet
    Cnidarians: The Polyp and Medusa

    Scientists think that cnidarians were the first animals to have muscles and nerves to produce behavior.

    Download Factsheet

  • Red orange and pink flatworm
    Factsheet
    Flatworms: An Ancient Body Plan

    Around 20,000 flatworm species today have the same basic body plan that appeared roughly 500 million years ago.

    Download Factsheet

  • Pink and white annelids
    Factsheet
    Annelids: Not Lowly, Lovely

    Annelids are impressively adapted animals that live in every habitable niche on earth except the sky.

    Download Factsheet

  • Kelp Crab
    Factsheet
    Marine Arthropods: An Adaptive Body Plan

    Marine arthropods are the most abundant group of animals in the ocean.

    Download Factsheet

  • Yellow and black spider in web
    Factsheet
    Terrestrial Arthropods: Bold Explorers!

    Arthropods were the first animals to venture out of the sea onto land all over the earth.

    Download Factsheet

  • Spread out octopus
    Factsheet
    Molluscs: Beauty and Diversity

    The diversity of molluscs shows how a fleshy soft body plan can evolve into a variety of forms.

    Download Factsheet

  • Purple echinoderms
    Factsheet
    Echinoderms: The Spiny Rebels

    Modern echinoderms, which include sea stars, urchins, sea cucumbers and sea lilies, have a unique body plan with a five-part symmetry.

    Download Factsheet

  • Blue Tunicates
    Factsheet
    Chordates: This Is Us

    The chordate phylum includes both invertebrates (without backbones) and vertebrates (with backbones).

    Download Factsheet

  • Top of the Tree of Life with Species
    Factsheet
    Cambrian Explosion

    The Cambrian Explosion was a burst of animal evolution that occurred in the ocean about 540 million years ago.

    Download Factsheet