Marine invertebrates
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The 49th plate from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904, showing various sea anemones classified as Actiniae

The term "marine invertebrates" is used to describe animals found in a marine environment which are invertebrates: lacking a notochord. 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 huge portion of all life in the sea. Invertebrate sea life includes:

• Bryozoa, also known as moss animals or sea mats;
• Cnidaria, such as jellyfish, sea anemones and corals;
• Crustaceans, such a such as lobsters, crabs, shrimp, crayfish and barnacles;
• Ctenophora: sea worms including flatworms, ribbon worms, annelids, Sipuncula, Echiura, Chaetognatha, and the phoronids;
• Echinoderms, including starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, sea cucumbers, and crinoids;
• Mollusca, including shellfish, squid, octopus;
• Sponges;
• Tunicates, also known as sea squirts.

See also

• Marine biology
• Marine vertebrate

References

• List of Marine Invertebrate Phyla

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