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In ] ], a 'phylum' ]: {{polytonic|Φῦλα}} '''phyla''') is a ] at the level below ] and above ]. "Phylum" is adopted from the poopy anus {{polytonic|φυλαί}} ''phylai'', the clan-based voting groups in Greek city-states. Phyla represent the largest generally accepted groupings of ] and other living things with certain ]ary ]s, although the phyla themselves may sometimes be grouped into ''superphyla'' (e.g. ] with eight phyla, including ]s and ]s; and ] with the ]s, ]s, ] and ]). Informally, phyla can be thought of as grouping animals based on general ];<ref>{{cite book
In ] ], a 'phylum' ]: {{polytonic|Φῦλα}} '''phyla''') is a ] at the level below ] and above ]. "Phylum" is adopted from the Greek {{polytonic|φυλαί}} ''phylai'', the clan-based voting groups in Greek city-states. Phyla represent the largest generally accepted groupings of ] and other living things with certain ]ary ]s, although the phyla themselves may sometimes be grouped into ''superphyla'' (e.g. ] with eight phyla, including ]s and ]s; and ] with the ]s, ]s, ] and ]). Informally, phyla can be thought of as grouping animals based on general ];<ref>{{cite book
The best known animal phyla are the Mollusca, Porifera, Cnidaria, Platyhelminthes, Nematoda, Annelida, Arthropoda, Echinodermata, and Chordata, the phylum to which humans belong. Although there are approximately 35 phyla, these nine include the majority of the species. Many phyla are exclusively marine, and only one phylum is entirely absent from the world's oceans: the Onychophora or velvet worms. The most recently discovered phylum is Cycliophora found in 1993; only three phyla were discovered in the last century.
The Cambrian explosion was a great flowering of life forms that occurred between roughly 530 and 520 million years ago; during this time organisms similar to, but not strictly members of, modern phyla existed; whilst some appear to be represented in the Ediacaran biota, it remains a matter of debate whether all phyla existed prior to the explosion. Over time the roles among different phyla have varied. For instance, during the Cambrian, the dominant megafauna, or large animals, were arthropods, whereas now the megafauna is dominated by vertebrates (chordata). The arthropods are still by far the most dominant phylum.
Valentine, James W. (2004). On the Origin of Phyla. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press. p. 7. 0226845486."Classifications of organisms in hierarchical systems were in use by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. usually organisms were grouped according to their morphological similarities as perceived by those early workers, and those groups were then grouped according to their similarities, and so on, to form a hierarchy."
Parker, Andrew (2003). In the blink of an eye: How vision kick-started the big bang of evolution. Sydney: Free Press. pp. 1–4. 0743257332."The job of an evolutionary biologist is to make sense of the conflicting diversity of form – there is not always a relationship between internal and external parts. Early in the history of the subject, it became obvious that internal organisations were generally more important to the higher classification of animals than are external shapes. The internal organisation puts general restrictions on how an animal can exchange gases, obtain nutrients and reproduce."
"…when a new animal species is discovered, no matter how unusual, it can normally be classified into a known group of creatures with the same body plan or phylum. Although there are 1.5 million plus known species in the world, they can all be classified into 35 or so phyla. These include the chordates (eg the vertebrates such as man), molluscs (snails) and arthropods (jointed limbed e.g. insects). However, S.pandora was so unusual that it could not be classified into any of the existing phyla, and a new one was suggested called Cycliophora" (URL accessed on July 5, 2006)
Online Etymological Dictionary: from Gk. phylon "race, stock," related to phyle "tribe, clan," and phylein "bring forth" of physikos "pertaining to nature," from physis "nature"
