Have you seen the picture of the skeleton of a man? A strong backbone system supports our body. Man is able to stand erect or walk because of his backbone. Invertebrates are animals without a backbone. Of the millions of species of animals on the planet, 97 per cent are invertebrates. Common examples of invertebrates include snails, clams, insects, spiders, worms and molluscs.
Do you think that all animals on Earth have the same body structure? Do insects such as caterpillars and bees have backbones like mammals such as bears and sloths? Even though they are all animals, insects and mammals have very different body structures! Caterpillars and bees are invertebrates.
In the animal kingdom, invertebrates are actually the largest group. They make up 97 per cent of all animals on the planet. The total number of invertebrate species could be over 30 million. This number is much higher than that of the vertebrates, which is about 60,000. Invertebrates are also very diverse. They include animals living on the land and those living in the sea. Some examples are earthworms, centipedes, flies, sea stars, jellyfish and crawfish!
Invertebrates have a long history of existence on Earth. Fossil records show that invertebrates even existed 600 million years ago. Invertebrates also have a big impact on other animals’ lives. They are a major food source for other animal species such as birds and fish. In agricultural production, some of them act as pests and parasites. This includes bugs like grasshoppers and ladybugs.
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