Invertebrates
What are invertebrates?
Invertebrates are animals that lack a vertebral column, or 'backbone'.
They account for more than 90% of all living animals, and range in size from minuscules protozoans to giant squids. Most invertebrates are soft-bodied (lacking an internal rigid skeleton) although many have hard outer cover to provide bodily protection. For example the exoskeleton of insects or a hardened shell such as those found on snails.
What invertebrates do we have in our collection?
We house specimens from every major inveterate phylum as listed below.
Follow the link to learn more about each group and view our various specimens.
A brief summary of invertebrate phyla is illustrated on the left.
'Worms' encompasses Platyhelminthes, Nematoda and Annelida.
Within the museum we preserve our invetebrate specimens in a number of ways: