Did you know that, at present, the total of known species of the Animalia kingdom constitute only 20% of the totality of living animals on the planet? And, if we go back to the total animal life that ever existed on the face of the Earth, this figure drops to 1%. These surprising data allow us to get an idea of the immense variety of life forms that the Kingdom of animals hides under its evolutionary history. To get closer to the knowledge of this Kingdom, numerous specialists dedicate their efforts every year to the characterization and in-depth knowledge of the Animalia kingdom, thus allowing the rest of society to delight us with their surprising scientific discoveries.
Do not miss this article by Ecologist Verde in which you will discover the most interesting and striking data of the Animalia kingdom: what is it, characteristics, classification and examples.
The Animalia Kingdom It constitutes, together with the Planate, Fungi, Protista and Monera kingdoms, the five famous taxonomic kingdoms of biological evolution in which the different forms of life that exist (and have existed) on Earth are grouped. As the name suggests, each and every one of the different animal species, grouped in a hierarchical system based on the homologous characters that they share with each other. In this way, animals constitute a large, ancient and well-defined "branch" within the evolutionary tree of life, which originated about 600 million years ago.
Zoology is the part of biology in charge of the exhaustive study of the Animalia kingdom, having as some of its main objectives to discover all the animal species that exist, reconstruct their evolutionary relationships and reflect these relationships in the construction of a taxonomic system.
The different species that belong to the Animalia kingdom are distributed throughout each and every one of the various ecosystems of the biosphere, with zoogeography being the science in charge of this study of the geographical distribution of animals. Let's see, next, more characteristics of the animal kingdom:
Thanks to the study of Phylogeny, zoologists make known the great diversity of animals that exist, taking into account their evolutionary origins, organization models and set of biological properties that relate or distinguish them from each other. For example, the presence or absence of bones allows animals to be classified as vertebrates or invertebrates.
The animal kingdom classification It is currently very complex, recognizing up to 32 different edges. Among them, the best known and most abundant phyla, in order from least to greatest anatomical and functional complexity, are:
To this last edge belong the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish; all of them characterized by the presence of a "dorsal cord" during their embryonic development, which is maintained throughout the life of many of the chordate species (in humans, Homo sapiens sapiens, said dorsal cord is the so-called backbone, vital for the correct locomotion and development of the nervous and cognitive abilities that characterize us as a species).
Let's put some examples from the animal kingdom, following the classification in the previous section, to learn more about the great diversity of species that fill every corner of the biosphere with life:
Then you can see images of the Animalia kingdom, specifically of each of the species mentioned in this list in order.
Like every link in the complex and surprising evolutionary chain of living beings, the kingdom of animals is of great importance. Each of the species that belong to this kingdom play an essential role within the proper functioning of the ecosystem in which it inhabits. In this way, we can talk about the importance of the Animalia kingdom in ecological terms, since each species is directly related to both its prey and its predators, in circles of energy transformation and balances of the habitat in which it develops and fulfills its vital functions.
As we can see, it is complex to determine for a single purpose the importance of the animal kingdom, going beyond the small and limited vision that human beings may have regarding the existence of the different groups of animals that we have been discovering throughout this article.
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