The remarkable diversity within the animal kingdom presents a significant challenge for scientists aiming to establish a consistent system of classification. The variety of forms-ranging from free-living organisms to parasites, and spanning sizes from microscopic creatures to massive animals-along with the ability of animals to thrive in a wide array of environments, including some of the most extreme and inaccessible ones, makes organizing them a complex task. This courses and practical guide in zoology is designed for the students in second-year of biology and ecology . Its purpose is to equip students with the fundamental tools needed to understand the evolutionary development of animal organization, while also outlining key classification criteria, such as cell number, which serves as a primary distinction between protozoa and metazoans. Additional factors, including locomotion, the number of embryonic layers, the future of the blastopore, the presence or absence of a coelom, and the relative position of the nervous system to the digestive tract, will also be explored in order to classify species within the Metazoan sub-kingdom.
- Enseignant: Khadidja Belkheir