Body Plan - Animal Examples

Animal Examples

The current range of body plans is far from exhausting the possible patterns for life: the Ediacaran biota appears to contain numerous species and taxa with body plans quite different from any found in currently living organisms.

The most commonly seen body plan amongst land vertebrates is that of the tetrapod, which include all mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles. Some vertebrate groups, such as the cetaceans, bats and most birds have been modified (e.g. front limbs become wings or flippers) but, nevertheless, they are still tetrapods.

The invertebrates employ a much more diverse array of body plans, such as seen in insects (six legs, three body parts and an exoskeleton), cephalopods (no skeleton, hydrostatically stiffened tentacles, primary propulsion by squeezing water out of a mantle cavity), echinoderms (fivefold radial symmetry, external skeleton, movement by hydrostatically operated tube feet) and various phyla of "worms" (tube-shaped, movement by expanding and contracting parts of the body).