Animal mesoderm forms by enterocoelic pouching, through invagination of the endoderm. The main deuterostome phyla are the Echinodermata and the Chordata. Echinoderms are exclusively marine and include starfish, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers. The chordates are dominated by the vertebrates (animals with backbones), which consist of fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. The deuterostomes also include the Hemichordata (acorn worms). The Ecdysozoa are protostomes, named after their shared trait of ecdysis, growth by moulting. They include the largest animal phylum, the Arthropoda, which contains insects, spiders, crabs, and their kin. All of these have a body divided into repeating segments, typically
Bacterial phyla Bacterial phyla The bacterial phyla are the major lineages, known as phyla or divisions, of the domain "Bacteria". In the scientific classification established by Carl von Linné, each bacterial strain has to be assigned to a species (binary nomenclature), which is a lower level of a hierarchy of ranks. Currently, the most accepted mega-classification system is under the three-domain system, which is based on molecular phylogeny. In that system, bacteria are members of the domain "Bacteria" and "phylum" is the rank below domain, since the rank "kingdom" is disused at present in bacterial taxonomy. When bacterial nomenclature was controlled under