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The 49th plate from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur, 1904, showing various sea anemones classified as Actiniae

The term "marine invertebrates" is used to describe animals found in a marine environment which are invertebrates: lacking a vertebral column. In order to protect themselves, they may have evolved a shell or a hard exoskeleton, but this is not always the case.

As on land and in the air, invertebrates make up a huge portion of all life in the sea. Invertebrate sea life includes:

• Annelida (polychaetes);
• Brachiopoda;
• Bryozoa, also known as moss animals or sea mats;
• Chaetognatha;
• Cephalochordata;
• Cnidaria, such as jellyfish, sea anemones, and corals;
• Crustacea, including lobsters, crabs, shrimp, crayfish, barnacles, and Hermit crab;
• Ctenophora, also known as comb jellies;
• Echinodermata, including sea stars, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, sea cucumbers, crinoids, and sea daisies;
• Echiura;
• Gnathostomulids;
• Gastrotricha;
• Hemichordata;
• Kamptozoa;
• Kinorhyncha;
• Loricifera;
• Mollusca, including shellfish, squid, octopus, whelks, Nautilus, nudibranchs, and scallops;
• Nemertinea (ribbon worms);
• Phoronida;
• Placozoa;
• Porifera (sponges);
• Priapulida;
• Pycnogonida;
• Sipunculida;
• Tunicata, also known as sea squirts;
• Some flatworms of the class Turbellaria;
• Xenoturbella.

See also

• African Invertebrates
• Marine biology
• Marine vertebrate
• List of marine aquarium invertebrate species

References

• List of Animal Phyla