Superphylum

For other uses, see Phyla.

The hierarchy of biological classification's eight major taxonomic ranks. A kingdom contains one or more phyla. Intermediate minor rankings are not shown.

In biology, a phylum (English pronunciation: /ˈfaɪləm/; plural: phyla) is a taxonomic rank below kingdom and above class. Traditionally, in botany the term "division" is used instead of "phylum", although in 1993 the International Botanical Congress accepted the designation "phylum". The kingdom Animalia contains approximately 35 phyla; the kingdom Plantae contains 12 phyla. Current research in phylogenetics is uncovering the relationships between phyla, which are contained in larger clades, like Ecdysozoa and Embryophyta.

General description and familiar examples [edit]

Concepts of animal phyla have changed importantly from their origins in the six Linnaean classess and the four "embranchements" of Georges Cuvier. Haeckel introduced the term phylum, based on the Greek word phylon. In plant taxonomy, Eichler (1883) classified all plants into five groups, named divisions. Informally, phyla can be thought of as grouping organisms based on general specialization of body plan. At the most basic level, a phylum can be defined in two ways: as a group of organisms with a certain degree of morphological or developmental similarity (the phenetic definition), or a group of organisms with a certain degree of evolutionary relatedness (the phylogenetic definition). Attempting to define a level of the Linnean hierarchy without referring to (evolutionary) relatedness is an unsatisfactory approach, but the phenetic definition is more useful when addressing questions of a morphological nature-such as how successful different body plans were.

Definition based on genetic relation [edit]

The largest objective measure in the above definitions is the "certain degree"-how unrelated do organisms need to be to be members of different phyla? The minimal requirement is that all organisms in a phylum should be related closely enough for them to be clearly more closely related to one another than to any other group. However, even this is problematic, as the requirement depends on our current knowledge about organisms' relationships: As more data becomes available, particularly from molecular studies, we are better able to judge 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 as a new phylum (the Pogonophora) when described in 1914, but molecular work almost a century later found them closely related to annelids and merged the phyla, so that the bearded worms are now an annelid family. Likewise, the highly parasitic phylum Mesozoa was divided into two phyla Orthonectida and Rhombozoa, when it was discovered the Orthonectida are 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. So as to provide a handle on the size and significance of groups, a "body-plan" based definition of a phylum has been proposed by paleontologists Graham Budd and Sören Jensen. The definition was posited by paleontologists because extinct organisms are typically hardest to classify; they can be off-shoots that diverged from a phylum's line before the characters that define the modern phylum were all acquired.

Definition based on body plan [edit]

By Budd and Jensen's definition, phyla are defined by a set of characters shared by all their living representatives. This has a couple of small problems-for instance, characters common to most members of a phylum may be secondarily lost by some members. It is also defined 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 more major problem is that it relies on an objective decision of which group of organisms should be considered a phylum.

Its utility is that 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.

Based upon this definition, which some say is unreasonably affected by the chance survival of rare groups, which vastly increase the size of phyla, representatives of many modern phyla did not appear until long after the Cambrian.

Lists [edit]

Animal phyla [edit]

Phylum	Meaning	Common name	Distinguishing characteristic	Species described
Acanthocephala	Thorny headed worms	Thorny-headed worms	Reversible spiny proboscis	7002756000000000000approx. 756
Acoelomorpha	Without gut	Acoels	No mouth or alimentary canal (alimentary canal = digestive tract in digestive system)
Annelida	Little ring	Segmented worms	Multiple circular segment	700417000000000000017,000+ extant
Arthropoda	Jointed foot	Arthropods	Chitin exoskeleton	70061134000000000001,134,000+
Brachiopoda	Arm foot	Lamp shells	Lophophore and pedicle	7002300000000000000300-500 extant
Bryozoa	Moss animals	Moss animals, sea mats	Lophophore, no pedicle, ciliated tentacles	70035000000000000005,000 extant
Chaetognatha	Longhair jaw	Arrow worms	Chitinous spines either side of head, fins	7002100000000000000approx. 100 extant
Chordata	With a cord	Chordates	Hollow dorsal nerve cord, notochord, pharyngeal slits, endostyle, post-anal tail	7005100000000000000approx. 100,000+
Cnidaria	Stinging nettle	Coelenterates	Nematocysts (stinging cells)	7004110000000000000approx. 11,000
Ctenophora	Comb bearer	Comb jellies	Eight "comb rows" of fused cilia	7002100000000000000approx. 100 extant
Cycliophora	Wheel carrying	Symbion	Circular mouth surrounded by small cilia	70003000000000000003+
Echinodermata	Spiny skin	Echinoderms	Fivefold radial symmetry in living forms, mesodermal calcified spines	7003700000000000000approx. 7,000 extant; approx. 13,000 extinct
Entoprocta	Inside anus	Goblet worm	Anus inside ring of cilia	7002150000000000000approx. 150
Gastrotricha	Hair stomach	Meiofauna	Two terminal adhesive tubes	7002690000000000000approx. 690
Gnathostomulida	Jaw orifice	Jaw worms		7002100000000000000approx. 100
Hemichordata	Half cord	Acorn worms, pterobranchs	Stomochord in collar, pharyngeal slits	7002100000000000000approx. 100 extant
Kinorhyncha	Motion snout	Mud dragons	Eleven segments, each with a dorsal plate	7002150000000000000approx. 150
Loricifera	Corset bearer	Brush heads	Umbrella-like scales at each end	7002122000000000000approx. 122
Micrognathozoa	Tiny jaw animals	-	Accordion-like extensible thorax	70001000000000000001
Mollusca	Soft	Mollusks / molluscs	Muscular foot and mantle round shell	7005112000000000000112,000
Nematoda	Thread like	Round worms	Round cross section, keratin cuticle	700480000000000000080,000–1,000,000
Nematomorpha	Thread form	Horsehair worms		7002320000000000000approx. 320
Nemertea	A sea nymph	Ribbon worms		7003120000000000000approx. 1,200
Onychophora	Claw bearer	Velvet worms	Legs tipped by chitinous claws	7002200000000000000approx. 200 extant
Orthonectida	Straight swim		Single layer of ciliated cells surrounding a mass of sex cells	7001200000000000000approx. 20
Phoronida	Zeus's mistress	Horseshoe worms	U-shaped gut	700111000000000000011
Placozoa	Plate animals			70001000000000000001
Platyhelminthes	Flat worms	Flat worms		7004250000000000000approx. 25,000
Porifera *	Pore bearer	Sponges	Perforated interior wall	70035000000000000005,000+ extant
Priapulida	Little Priapus			700116000000000000016
Rhombozoa	Lozenge animal	-	Single anteroposterior axial cell surrounded by ciliated cells	700175000000000000075
Rotifera	Wheel bearer	Rotifers	Anterior crown of cilia	7003200000000000000approx. 2,000
Sipuncula	Small tube	Peanut worms	Mouth surrounded by invertible tentacles	7002144000000000000144–320
Tardigrada	Slow step	Water bears	Four segmented body and head	70031000000000000001,000+
Xenoturbellida	Strange flatworm	-	Ciliated deuterostome	70002000000000000002
Total: 35				2,000,000+

	Protostome	Bilateria
	Deuterostome
	Basal/disputed
	Others (Radiata or Parazoa)

Groups formerly ranked as phyla [edit]

Name as phylum	Common name	Current consensus
Aschelminthes	Pseudocoelomates	Divided into several pseudocoelomate phyla.
Craniata	-	Subgroup of phylum Chordata; perhaps synonymous with Vertebrata.
Cephalochordata	Lancelets	Subphylum of phylum Chordata.
Cephalorhyncha	-	Superphylum Scalidophora.
Echiura	Spoon worms	Class of phylum Annelida.
Enterepneusta	Acorn worms	Class of phylum Hemichordata.
Gephyra	Peanut worms and spoon worms	Divided into phyla Sipuncula and Echiura.
Mesozoa	Mesozoans	Divided into phyla Orthonectida and Rhombozoa.
Myxozoa		Severely modified Cnidarians.
Pentastomida	Tongue worms	Subclass of Maxillopoda of phylum Arthropoda.
Pogonophora	Beard worms	Part of family Siboglinidae of phylum Annelida.
Pterobranchia	-	Class of phylum Hemichordata.
Symplasma	Glass sponges	Class Hexactinellida of phylum Porifera.
Urochordata	Tunicates	Subphylum of phylum Chordata.
Vestimentifera	Vent worms	Part of family Siboglinidae of phylum Annelida.

Plant divisions [edit]

Division	Meaning	Common name	Distinguishing characteristics
Anthocerotophyta	Flower-horn plants	Hornworts	Horn-shaped sporophytes, no vascular system
Bryophyta	Moss plants	Mosses	Persistent unbranched sporophytes, no vascular system
Marchantiophyta	Marchantia plants	Liverworts	Ephemeral unbranched sporophytes, no vascular system
Lycopodiophyta	Wolf foot plants	Clubmosses & Spikemosses	Microphyll leaves, vascular system
Pteridophyta	Fern plants	Ferns & Horsetails	Prothallus gametophytes, vascular system
Pteridospermatophyta	Fern with seeds plant	Seed ferns	Only known from fossils, mostly Devonian, ranking in dispute
Coniferophyta	Cone-bearing plants	Conifers	Cones containing seeds and wood composed of tracheids
Cycadophyta	Palm-like plants	Cycads	Seeds, crown of compound leaves
Ginkgophyta	Ginkgo plants	Ginkgo, Maidenhair	Seeds not protected by fruit (single living species)
Gnetophyta	Gnetophytes	Gnetum plants	Seeds and woody vascular system with vessels
Anthophyta (or Magnoliophyta)	Flower plant	Flowering plants	Flowers and fruit, vascular system with vessels

Fungal divisions [edit]

Phylum	Meaning	Common name	Distinguishing characteristics
Chytridiomycota	Little pot mushroom	Chytrids	Cellulose in cell walls, flagellated gametes
Deuteromycota	Second mushroom	Imperfect fungi	Unclassified fungi; only asexual reproduction observed no other major distinguishments
Zygomycota	Yolk mushroom	Zygomycetes	Blend gametangia to form a zygosporangium
Glomeromycota	Ball mushroom	None	Form arbuscular mycorrhizae with plants
Ascomycota	Bag/Wineskin Mushroom	Sac fungi	Produce spores in an 'ascus'which is a kind of fruiting bud
Basidiomycota	Basidium Mushroom	Club Fungi	Produce spores from a 'basidium' which is a kind of fruiting bud

Bacterial Phyla/Divisions [edit]

Main article: Bacterial phyla

Currently there are 29 phyla accepted by LPSN

Acidobacteria, phenotipically diverse and mostly uncultured
Actinobacteria, High-G+C Gram positive species
Aquificae, only 14 thermophilic genera, deep branching
Bacteroidetes
Caldiserica, formerly candidate division OP5, Caldisericum exile is the sole representative
Chlamydiae, only 6 genera
Chlorobi, only 7 genera
Chloroflexi,
Chrysiogenetes, only 3 genera (Chrysiogenes arsenatis, Desulfurispira natronophila, Desulfurispirillum alkaliphilum)
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 (aerobic) and Clostridia (anaerobic)
Fusobacteria
Gemmatimonadetes
Lentisphaerae, formerly clade VadinBE97
Nitrospira
Planctomycetes ANo ito?
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 (notable genus: Mycoplasma)
Thermodesulfobacteria
Thermomicrobia
Thermotogae, deep branching
Verrucomicrobia

Archaeal Phyla/Division/Kingdoms [edit]

Crenarchaeota, Second most common archaeal phylum
Euryarchaeota, most common archaeal phylum
Korarchaeota
Nanoarchaeota, ultra-small symbiotes
Thaumarchaeota

Notes [edit]

The term was coined by Haeckel from Greek φῦλον phylon, "race, stock," related to φυλή phyle, "tribe, clan."

References [edit]

"Life sciences". The American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy (third ed.). Houghton Mifflin Company. 2005. Retrieved 2008-10-04. "Phyla in the plant kingdom are frequently called divisions."
Berg, Linda R. (2007-03-02). Introductory Botany: Plants, People, and the Environment (2 ed.). Cengage Learning. p. 15. ISBN - get this book. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
Collins AG, Valentine JW (2001). "Defining phyla: evolutionary pathways to metazoan body plans." Evol. Dev. 3: 432-442.
Valentine 2004, p. 8.
Naik, V. N. (1984). Taxonomy of Angiosperms. Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi, p. 27.
Valentine, James W. (2004). On the Origin of Phyla. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press. p. 7. ISBN - get this book. "Classifications of organisms in hierarchical systems were in use by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Usually organisms were grouped according to their what? morphological similarities as perceived by those early workers, and those groups were then grouped according to their similarities, and so on, to form a hierarchy."
Budd, G.E.; Jensen, S. (2000). "A critical reappraisal of the fossil record of the bilaterian phyla". Biological Reviews 75 (2): 253–295. doi:10.1111/j.1469-185X.1999.tb00046.x. PMID 10881389. Retrieved 2007-05-26.
Rouse G.W. (2001). "A cladistic analysis of Siboglinidae Caullery, 1914 (Polychaeta, Annelida): formerly the phyla Pogonophora and Vestimentifera". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 132 (1): 55–80. doi:10.1006/zjls.2000.0263.
Pawlowski J, Montoya-Burgos JI, Fahrni JF, Wüest J, Zaninetti L (October 1996). "Origin of the Mesozoa inferred from 18S rRNA gene sequences". Mol. Biol. Evol. 13 (8): 1128–32. PMID 8865666.
Budd, G.E. (1998). "Arthropod body-plan evolution in the Cambrian with an example from anomalocaridid muscle". Lethaia (Blackwell Synergy) 31 (3): 197–210. doi:10.1111/j.1502-3931.1998.tb00508.x.
Briggs, D. E. G; Fortey, R. A (2005). "Wonderful strife: systematics, stem groups, and the phylogenetic signal of the Cambrian radiation". Paleobiology 31 (2 (Suppl)): 94–112. doi:10.1666/0094-8373(2005)031[0094:WSSSGA]2.0.CO;2.
Feldkamp, S. (2002) Modern Biology. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, USA. (pp. 725)
Species Register. "Flatworms - Phylum Platyhelminthes". Marine Discovery Centres. Retrieved 2007-04-09.
"Kingdom Plantae Tree of Life".
J.P. Euzéby. "List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature: Phyla". Retrieved 30 December 2010.

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