I. SCOPE 



During my studies of spermatozoa, I have often been frustrated by having to consult a 

 number of books, instead of one, to find an up-to-date classification of the animal kingdom: 

 and it occurred to me that other scientists might have the same difficulty. Classifications of the 

 animal kingdom are available; but the only comprehensive ones of which I am aware are that 

 of my first biology teacher. D. M. Reid (1925), which is out of print and now out-of-date, and 

 that prepared in 1949 for Section F of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, Zoological Names, a List of Phyla, Classes and Orders. Apart from having no table 

 of contents, index or examples, this pamphlet, which is reproduced in Specter's Handbook of 

 Biological Data (1956), was clearly written for zoologists and not for physiologists, bio- 

 chemists, biophysicists and those biologists who are not familiar with the classification of 

 animals, for whom this book is intended. 



The book and its Index can be used to find out how the animal kingdom, or parts of it, 

 are classified, which are the eutherian mammals, what phasmids and Homoptera are, etc. 

 Neither the book nor its Index can necessarily provide answers to questions about the 

 systematic positions of individual genera, because there are some two hundred thousand 

 genera in the animal kingdom.' Nevertheless, the Latin and some English names of a number 

 of better known genera have been included. A genus may be well known to one person and 

 unknown to another; any selection of 'better known genera' is bound, therefore, to be 

 arbitrary. The reader is, therefore, almost certain to find that some genera, which are well 

 known to him, are absent. Similarly, the English names of some better known animals are 

 missing, because no species, only genera, are mentioned. 



No extinct groups are mentioned, although from time to time members of such groups 

 turn out not to be extinct at all, as in the case of the coelacanth (Actinistia) and the mollusc 

 Neopilina (Tryblidiacea). The omission of extinct orders may give the misleading impression 

 that a system of classification is top-heavy. In classifications of recent birds (Class Aves), for 

 example, one sub-class, Neomithes, is sometimes included; this may seem unnecessary. But if 

 the classification includes extinct birds, Neornithes is seen to be one of two sub-classes, the 

 other, extinct, one being Archaeornithes. 



Alternative classifications are given of the Parazoa ( = Porifera), Platyhelminthes and 

 Nematoda. The nematode classification of Chitwood & Chitwood (1950) is preferred to that 

 of Hyman, which is well known because her treatise The Invertebrates (1940-1959) is so well 

 known. A classification of the Parazoa by Dr. Maurice Burton is preferred to that of Hyman. 

 Professor Jean Baer's classification of the Platyhelminthes, as yet unpublished, is preferred to 

 that of Dr. Ben Dawes, but in this case, the decision was a personal one. The preferred 

 classification is given first in each case. The same genera are cited as examples in the alterna- 

 tive classifications, but in the Index, genera are referred to the preferred classification. 

 Alternative classifications of several other groups could have been given, e.g. the class 

 Echinoidea, because systematics is a dynamic subject about which zoologists often disagree. 

 But only the Parazoa, Platyhelminthes and Nematoda seemed to require this treatment in a 

 book of this size and detail. 



If an English name applies to a particular genus, as in the case of 'whelk', it will be found 



in the singular after the generic name, Buccinum. But if the same English name applies to two 



or more genera, it will be found, in the plural, after the genera to which it applies, for example 



Cavolina, Limacina (sea-butterflies). When English names are available for higher groupings, 



such as sponges (Parazoa), these will be found after the Latin names. No attempt has been 



made to give a comprehensive list of English or vernacular names, interesting as it may be to 



know that everyone in the Barbados is familiar with sea eggs, but no one with sea urchins. 



Such information is outside the scope of this book. Whenever possible, therefore, Latin and 



not English names should be looked up in the Index. In a few cases where an animal causes a 



disease which has an English name, it has been put in brackets after the generic name of the 



animal, for example Entamoeba (amoebic dysentery). 



' If a genus is not in this book, the most likely place to find it is in Neave's Nomenclator Zoologicus 

 (1939-1950). 



