Phylum
In biology, a phylum is a level of classification or taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. Traditionally, in botany the term division has been used instead of phylum, although the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants accepts the terms as equivalent. Depending on definitions, the animal kingdom Animalia or Metazoa contains approximately 35 phyla; the plant kingdom Plantae contains about 14, and the fungus kingdom Fungi contains about 8 phyla. Current research in phylogenetics is uncovering the relationships between phyla, which are contained in larger clades, like Ecdysozoa and Embryophyta.
General description
The term phylum was coined in 1866 by Ernst Haeckel from the Greek phylon, related to phyle. Haeckel noted that species constantly evolved into new species that seemed to retain few consistent features among themselves and therefore few features that distinguished them as a group. "Wohl aber ist eine solche reale und vollkommen abgeschlossene Einheit die Summe aller Species, welche aus einer und derselben gemeinschaftlichen Stammform allmählig sich entwickelt haben, wie z. B. alle Wirbelthiere. Diese Summe nennen wir Stamm." which translates as: However, perhaps such a real and completely self-contained unity is the aggregate of all species which have gradually evolved from one and the same common original form, as, for example, all vertebrates. We name this aggregate Stamm In plant taxonomy, August W. Eichler classified plants into five groups named divisions, a term that remains in use today for groups of plants, algae and fungi.The definitions of zoological phyla have changed from their origins in the six Linnaean classes and the four embranchements of Georges Cuvier.
Informally, phyla can be thought of as groupings of organisms based on general specialization of body plan. At its most basic, a phylum can be defined in two ways: as a group of organisms with a certain degree of morphological or developmental similarity, or a group of organisms with a certain degree of evolutionary relatedness. Attempting to define a level of the Linnean hierarchy without referring to relatedness is unsatisfactory, but a phenetic definition is useful when addressing questions of a morphological nature—such as how successful different body plans were.
Definition based on genetic relation
The most important objective measure in the above definitions is the "certain degree" that defines how different organisms need to be members of different phyla. The minimal requirement is that all organisms in a phylum should be clearly more closely related to one another than to any other group. Even this is problematic because the requirement depends on knowledge of organisms' relationships: as more data become available, particularly from molecular studies, we are better able to determine the relationships between groups. So phyla can be merged or split if it becomes apparent that they are related to one another or not. For example, the bearded worms were described) in the middle of the 20th century, but molecular work almost half a century later found them to be a group of annelids, so the phyla were merged. On the other hand, the highly parasitic phylum Mesozoa was divided into two phyla when it was discovered the Orthonectida are probably deuterostomes and the Rhombozoa protostomes.This changeability of phyla has led some biologists to call for the concept of a phylum to be abandoned in favour of cladistics, a method in which groups are placed on a "family tree" without any formal ranking of group size.
Definition based on body plan
A definition of a phylum based on body plan has been proposed by paleontologists Graham Budd and Sören Jensen. The definition was posited because extinct organisms are hardest to classify: they can be offshoots that diverged from a phylum's line before the characters that define the modern phylum were all acquired. By Budd and Jensen's definition, a phylum is defined by a set of characters shared by all its living representatives.This approach brings some small problems—for instance, ancestral characters common to most members of a phylum may have been lost by some members. Also, this definition is based on an arbitrary point of time: the present. However, as it is character based, it is easy to apply to the fossil record. A greater problem is that it relies on a subjective decision about which groups of organisms should be considered as phyla.
The approach is useful because it makes it easy to classify extinct organisms as "stem groups" to the phyla with which they bear the most resemblance, based only on the taxonomically important similarities. However, proving that a fossil belongs to the crown group of a phylum is difficult, as it must display a character unique to a sub-set of the crown group. Furthermore, organisms in the stem group of a phylum can possess the "body plan" of the phylum without all the characteristics necessary to fall within it. This weakens the idea that each of the phyla represents a distinct body plan.
A classification using this definition may be strongly affected by the chance survival of rare groups, which can make a phylum much more diverse than it would be otherwise.
Known phyla
Animals
Total numbers are estimates; figures from different authors vary wildly, not least because some are based on described species, some on extrapolations to numbers of undescribed species. For instance, around 25,000–27,000 species of nematodes have been described, while published estimates of the total number of nematode species include 10,000–20,000; 500,000; 10 million; and 100 million.| Phylum | Meaning | Common name | Distinguishing characteristic | Species described |
| Acanthocephala | Thorny head | Thorny-headed worms | Reversible spiny proboscis that bears many rows of hooked spines | 1420 |
| Annelida | Little ring | Segmented worms | Multiple circular segment | 17000 + extant |
| Arthropoda | Jointed foot | Insects, crustaceans | Segmented bodies and jointed limbs, with Chitin exoskeleton | 1250000+ extant; 20,000+ extinct |
| Brachiopoda | Arm foot | Lampshells | Lophophore and pedicle | 300-500 extant; 12,000+ extinct |
| Bryozoa | Moss animals | Moss animals, sea mats, ectoprocts | Lophophore, no pedicle, ciliated tentacles, anus outside ring of cilia | 6000 extant |
| Chaetognatha | Longhair jaw | Arrow worms | Chitinous spines either side of head, fins | extant |
| Chordata | With a cord | Chordates | Hollow dorsal nerve cord, notochord, pharyngeal slits, endostyle, post-anal tail | + |
| Cnidaria | Stinging nettle | Cnidarians | Nematocysts | |
| Ctenophora | Comb bearer | Comb jellies | Eight "comb rows" of fused cilia | -150 extant |
| Cycliophora | Wheel carrying | Symbion | Circular mouth surrounded by small cilia, sac-like bodies | 3+ |
| Echinodermata | Spiny skin | Echinoderms | Fivefold radial symmetry in living forms, mesodermal calcified spines | extant; approx. 13,000 extinct |
| Entoprocta | Inside anus | Goblet worms | Anus inside ring of cilia | |
| Gastrotricha | Hairy stomach | Gastrotrich worms | Two terminal adhesive tubes | |
| Gnathostomulida | Jaw orifice | Jaw worms | ||
| Hemichordata | Half cord | Acorn worms, hemichordates | Stomochord in collar, pharyngeal slits | extant |
| Kinorhyncha | Motion snout | Mud dragons | Eleven segments, each with a dorsal plate | |
| Loricifera | Corset bearer | Brush heads | Umbrella-like scales at each end | |
| Micrognathozoa | Tiny jaw animals | Limnognathia | Accordion-like extensible thorax | 1 |
| Mollusca | Soft | Mollusks / molluscs | Muscular foot and mantle round shell | 85000+ extant; 80,000+ extinct |
| Nematoda | Thread like | Round worms, thread worms | Round cross section, keratin cuticle | 25000 |
| Nematomorpha | Thread form | Horsehair worms, gordian worms | ||
| Nemertea | A sea nymph | Ribbon worms, rhynchocoela | ||
| Onychophora | Claw bearer | Velvet worms | Legs tipped by chitinous claws | extant |
| Orthonectida | Straight swimming | Orthonectids | Single layer of ciliated cells surrounding a mass of sex cells | |
| Phoronida | Zeus's mistress | Horseshoe worms | U-shaped gut | 11 |
| Placozoa | Plate animals | Trichoplaxes | Differentiated top and bottom surfaces, two ciliated cell layers, amoeboid fiber cells in between | 3 |
| Platyhelminthes | Flat worm | Flatworms | ||
| Porifera | Pore bearer | Sponges | Perforated interior wall | 10800 extant |
| Priapulida | Little Priapus | Penis worms | ||
| Rhombozoa | Lozenge animal | Rhombozoans | Single anteroposterior axial cell surrounded by ciliated cells | 100+ |
| Rotifera | Wheel bearer | Rotifers | Anterior crown of cilia | |
| Sipuncula | Small tube | Peanut worms | Mouth surrounded by invertible tentacles | 144-320 |
| Tardigrada | Slow step | Water bears, Moss piglets | Four segmented body and head | 1000 |
| Xenacoelomorpha | Strange form without gut | Acoels, xenoturbellids | Bilaterian, but lacking typical bilaterian structures such as gut cavities, anuses, and circulatory systems | 400+ |
| Total: 34 | 1,525,000 |
Plants
The kingdom Plantae is defined in various ways by different biologists. All definitions include the living embryophytes, to which may be added the two green algae divisions, Chlorophyta and Charophyta, to form the clade Viridiplantae. The table below follows the influential Cavalier-Smith system in equating "Plantae" with Archaeplastida, a group containing Viridiplantae and the algal Rhodophyta and Glaucophyta divisions.The definition and classification of plants at the division level also varies from source to source, and has changed progressively in recent years. Thus some sources place horsetails in division Arthrophyta and ferns in division Pteridophyta, while others place them both in Pteridophyta, as shown below. The division Pinophyta may be used for all gymnosperms, or for conifers alone as below.
Since the first publication of the APG system in 1998, which proposed a classification of angiosperms up to the level of orders, many sources have preferred to treat ranks higher than orders as informal clades. Where formal ranks have been provided, the traditional divisions listed below have been reduced to a very much lower level, e.g. subclasses.
| Division | Meaning | Common name | Distinguishing characteristics | Species described |
| Anthocerotophyta | Anthoceros-like plants | Hornworts | Horn-shaped sporophytes, no vascular system | 100-300+ |
| Bryophyta | Bryum-like plants, moss plants | Mosses | Persistent unbranched sporophytes, no vascular system | |
| Charophyta | Chara-like plants | Charophytes | ||
| Chlorophyta | green plants | Chlorophytes | ||
| Cycadophyta | Cycas-like plants, palm-like plants | Cycads | Seeds, crown of compound leaves | -200 |
| Ginkgophyta | Ginkgo-like plants | Ginkgo, maidenhair tree | Seeds not protected by fruit | extant; 50+ extinct |
| Glaucophyta | Blue-green plants | Glaucophytes | 15 | |
| Gnetophyta | Gnetum-like plants | Gnetophytes | Seeds and woody vascular system with vessels | |
| Lycopodiophyta, Lycophyta | Lycopodium-like plants Wolf plants | Clubmosses & spikemosses | Microphyll leaves, vascular system | 1290 extant |
| Magnoliophyta | Magnolia-like plants | Flowering plants, angiosperms | Flowers and fruit, vascular system with vessels | 300000 |
| Marchantiophyta, Hepatophyta | Marchantia-like plants Liver plants | Liverworts | Ephemeral unbranched sporophytes, no vascular system | |
| Pinophyta, Coniferophyta | Pinus-like plants Cone-bearing plant | Conifers | Cones containing seeds and wood composed of tracheids | 629 extant |
| Rhodophyta | Rose plants | Red algae | Use phycobiliproteins as accessory pigments. | approx. 7,000 |
| Total: 13 | - |
Fungi
| Division | Meaning | Common name | Distinguishing characteristics |
| Ascomycota | Bladder fungus | Ascomycetes, sac fungi | Tend to have fruiting bodies. Filamentous, producing hyphae separated by septa. Can reproduce asexually. |
| Basidiomycota | Small base fungus | Basidiomycetes | Bracket fungi, toadstools, smuts and rust. Sexual reproduction. |
| Blastocladiomycota | Offshoot branch fungus | Blastoclads | |
| Chytridiomycota | Little cooking pot fungus | Chytrids | Predominantly Aquatic saprotrophic or parasitic. Have a posterior flagellum. Tend to be single celled but can also be multicellular. |
| Glomeromycota | Ball of yarn fungus | Glomeromycetes, fungi | Mainly arbuscular mycorrhizae present, terrestrial with a small presence on wetlands. Reproduction is asexual but requires plant roots. |
| Microsporidia | Small seeds | Microsporans | |
| Neocallimastigomycota | New beautiful whip fungus | Neocallimastigomycetes | Predominantly located in digestive tract of herbivorus animals. Anaerobic, terrestrial and aquatic. |
| Zygomycota | Pair fungus | Zygomycetes | Most are saprobes and reproduce sexually and asexually. |
| Total: 8 |
Phylum Microsporidia is generally included in kingdom Fungi, though its exact relations remain uncertain, and it is considered a protozoan by the International Society of Protistologists. Molecular analysis of Zygomycota has found it to be polyphyletic, which is considered undesirable by many biologists. Accordingly, there is a proposal to abolish the Zygomycota phylum. Its members would be divided between phylum Glomeromycota and four new subphyla incertae sedis : Entomophthoromycotina, Kickxellomycotina, Mucoromycotina, and Zoopagomycotina.
[|Protista]
Kingdom Protista is included in the traditional five- or six-kingdom model, where it can be defined as containing all eukaryotes that are not plants, animals, or fungi. Protista is a polyphyletic taxon, which is less acceptable to present-day biologists than in the past. Proposals have been made to divide it among several new kingdoms, such as Protozoa and Chromista in the Cavalier-Smith system.Protist taxonomy has long been unstable, with different approaches and definitions resulting in many competing classification schemes. The phyla listed here are used for Chromista and Protozoa by the Catalogue of Life, adapted from the system used by the International Society of Protistologists.
| Chromista | |
| Protozoa |
| Phylum/Division | Meaning | Common name | Distinguishing characteristics | Example |
| Amoebozoa | Amorphous animal | Amoebas | Amoeba | |
| Bigyra | Two ring | |||
| Cercozoa | ||||
| Choanozoa | Funnel animal | |||
| Ciliophora | Cilia bearer | Ciliates | Paramecium | |
| Cryptista | ||||
| Euglenozoa | True eye animal | Euglena | ||
| Foraminifera | Hole bearers | Forams | Complex shells with one or more chambers | Forams |
| Haptophyta | ||||
| Loukozoa | Groove animal | |||
| Metamonada | Giardia | |||
| Microsporidia | Small spore | |||
| Myzozoa | Suckling animal | |||
| Mycetozoa | Slime molds | |||
| Ochrophyta | Yellow plant | Diatoms | Diatoms | |
| Oomycota | Egg fungus | Oomycetes | ||
| Percolozoa | ||||
| Radiozoa | Ray animal | Radiolarians | ||
| Sarcomastigophora | ||||
| Sulcozoa | ||||
| Total: 20 | - | - |
The Catalogue of Life includes Rhodophyta and Glaucophyta in kingdom Plantae, but other systems consider these phyla part of Protista.
Bacteria
Currently there are 29 phyla accepted by List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature- Acidobacteria, phenotypically diverse and mostly uncultured
- Actinobacteria, High-G+C Gram positive species
- Aquificae, only 14 thermophilic genera, deep branching
- Armatimonadetes
- Bacteroidetes
- Caldiserica, formerly candidate division OP5, Caldisericum exile is the sole representative
- Chlamydiae, only 6 genera
- Chlorobi, only 7 genera, green sulphur bacteria
- Chloroflexi, green non-sulphur bacteria
- Chrysiogenetes, only 3 genera
- Cyanobacteria, also known as the blue-green algae
- Deferribacteres
- Deinococcus-Thermus, Deinococcus radiodurans and Thermus aquaticus are "commonly known" species of this phyla
- Dictyoglomi
- Elusimicrobia, formerly candidate division Thermite Group 1
- Fibrobacteres
- Firmicutes, Low-G+C Gram positive species, such as the spore-formers Bacilli and Clostridia
- Fusobacteria
- Gemmatimonadetes
- Lentisphaerae, formerly clade VadinBE97
- Nitrospira
- Planctomycetes
- Proteobacteria, the most known phyla, containing species such as Escherichia coli or Pseudomonas aeruginosa
- Spirochaetes, species include Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease
- Synergistetes
- Tenericutes, alternatively class Mollicutes in phylum Firmicutes
- Thermodesulfobacteria
- Thermotogae, deep branching
- Verrucomicrobia
Archaea
- Crenarchaeota, second most common archaeal phylum
- Euryarchaeota, most common archaeal phylum
- Korarchaeota
- Nanoarchaeota, ultra-small symbiotes, single known species
- Thaumarchaeota