Biota
Arthropoda
EOL Text
The Arthropod Story. Understanding Evolution. University of California Museum of Paleontology (UCMP).
License | http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Katja Schulz, Katja Schulz |
Source | No source database. |
Joints have two degrees of bending freedom: arthropods
The joints of some arthropods have two degrees of bending freedom (up-down and left-right) thanks to two 1-degree bending joints found at right angles to each other.
"Bending both up-down and left-right…Arthropods gain two degrees of bending freedom by putting two 1-degree bending joints next to each other, each oriented at a right angle to the other…The classic work on such cases was done by S.M. Manton, in the 1950s and 1960s; as put, with a long list of references, by Wainwright et al. (1976), 'The accounts of her researches in this field constitute a monument in the study of mechanical design of the most mechanically diverse group of organisms that have ever lived.'" (Vogel 2003:403)
Learn more about this functional adaptation.
- Steven Vogel. 2003. Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 580 p.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | (c) 2008-2009 The Biomimicry Institute |
Source | http://www.asknature.org/strategy/6a5277bca7ab39c0d3644025c813a0b0 |
Cuticle provides protection: arthropods
The cuticle of arthropods provides rigid protection via its composite structure.
"What we're calling rigid materials includes a lot of familiar biological items. There's arthropod cuticle, a composite of chitin fibers in some proteinaceous material, with the addition of calcium carbonate salt in the larger crustaceans. In many instances, the fibers are arranged in sheets, each with a specific orientation, rather like plywood." (Vogel 2003:305)
Learn more about this functional adaptation.
- Steven Vogel. 2003. Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 580 p.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | (c) 2008-2009 The Biomimicry Institute |
Source | http://www.asknature.org/strategy/58e277a7dff838f0d57c26890a60f6f1 |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
Specimen Records:3808262
Specimens with Sequences:3121047
Specimens with Barcodes:2870275
Species:219540
Species With Barcodes:190600
Public Records:2754415
Public Species:91064
Public BINs:298550
Collection Sites: world map showing specimen collection locations for Arthropoda
Genomic DNA is available from 18 specimens with morphological vouchers housed at Florida Museum of Natural History and Raffles Museum, Singapore
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Text can be freely copied and altered, as long as original author and source are properly acknowledged. |
Source | http://www.oglf.org/catalog/details.php?id=T00382 |
Genomic DNA is available from 1 specimen with morphological vouchers housed at Florida Museum of Natural History
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Text can be freely copied and altered, as long as original author and source are properly acknowledged. |
Source | http://www.oglf.org/catalog/details.php?id=T00382 |
Genomic DNA is available from 1 specimen with morphological vouchers housed at British Antarctic Survey
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Text can be freely copied and altered, as long as original author and source are properly acknowledged. |
Source | http://www.oglf.org/catalog/details.php?id=T00382 |
The arthropods are the most successful type of organism known so far - if you define success by the number of known species. Almost half of the described species are arthropods, and given the rate at which scientists find new species, we can presume that we have described less than one fifth of the species out there. They are bilaterally symmetrical (there is a left/right symmetry), their bodies are made up from a series of segments, and they have paired and usually jointed appendages on some or all of the body segments. The body is protected by a tough organic or organic-mineral cuticle which functions as an exoskeleton. In order to grow, arthropods periodically shed their cuticle by a process called ecdysis. Insects, spiders, crustacea, trilobites are all types of arthropods.
License | http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Paddy Patterson, Paddy Patterson |
Source | No source database. |