Marine invertebrates are invertebrate animals that live in marine habitats, and make up most of the macroscopic life in the oceans. It is a polyphyletic blanket term that contains all marine animals e
Ernst Haeckel's 96th plate, showing some marine invertebrates. Marine invertebrates have a large variety of body plans, which are currently categorised into over 30 phyla.
Dickinsonia may be the earliest animal. They appear in the fossil record 571 million to 541 million years ago.
Kimberella, an early mollusc important for understanding the Cambrian explosion. Invertebrates are grouped into different phyla (body plans).
Bryozoa, from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904
Anthozoa is one of the three subphyla of Cnidaria, along with Medusozoa and Endocnidozoa. It includes sessile marine invertebrates and invertebrates of brackish water, such as sea anemones, stony cora
Coral Outcrop Flynn Reef
Reef 2095 Flickr NOAA Photo Library
Deep water corals serve as habitats for fish such as the alfonsino
Anatomy of a stony coral polyp