What collective name is given to creatures with segmented bodies, such as insects, arachnids and crustaceans?
Articulata hypothesis Articulata hypothesis, simply stated, is the phylogenetic grouping of the phylum Annelida, (which includes polychaetes, oligochaetes, and leeches), together with the phylum Arthropoda, (arachnids, insects and crustaceans) into the common taxon Articulata. Cuvier grouped these diverse phyla together according to the common structural feature: the segmented body plan. This hypothesis further implies that all segmented organisms have a common ancestral origin. Since its original formulation in 1817, there have been significant challenges and modifications to the articulata hypothesis as new theories have been accepted (Darwin's theory of evolution) and new technologies have become available (confocal microscopy, DNA sequencing, genomics). Darwin's
Worm (where he still had 4 phyla: mammals, birds, reptiles, and fish) and molluscs, namely cirripedes, annelids, crustaceans, arachnids, insects, worms, radiates, polyps, and infusorians. In the 13th century, worms were recognized in Europe as part of the category of "reptiles" that consisted of a miscellany of egg-laying creatures, including "snakes, various fantastic monsters, lizards, assorted amphibians," as recorded by Vincent of Beauvais in his "Mirror of Nature". In everyday language, the term "worm" is also applied to various other living forms such as larvae, insects, millipedes, centipedes, shipworms (teredo worms), or even some vertebrates (creatures with a backbone) such as