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Deuterostome Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.
| Deuterostomia Temporal range: late Ediacaran – Recent |
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| A Sea cucumber | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Subkingdom: | Eumetazoa |
| Superphylum: | Deuterostomia Grobben, 1908 |
| (unranked): | Bilateria |
| Phyla | |
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Deuterostomes are a superphylum of animals, a taxon above the level of phylum. It is not part of the usual system of classification.
They are bilateral animals, and are contrasted with the protostomes. Deuterostomes are distingued by their embryo: in deuterostomes, the first opening (the blastopore) becomes the anus, while in protostomes it becomes the mouth.
Classification
There are these living phyla of deuterostomes:
- Chordata (vertebrates and their kin)
- Echinodermata (starfishes, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, etc.)
- Hemichordata (acorn worms and possibly graptolites)
- Xenoturbellida (2 species of worm-like animals)
- Acoelomorpha
Images for kids
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All chordates (which includes all vertebrates), such as birds and mammals, are deuterostomes. Shown here is a barred owl.
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Consensus relationships among deuterostome taxa. Phylogenomic evidence suggests the enteropneust family, Torquaratoridae, fall within the Ptychoderidae. Based on 16S +18S rRNA sequence data and phylogenomic studies from multiple sources.