Describe the external body plan of a decapod?
452996
You should clarify whether you mean the group containing squids and relatives or the group containing crabs, lobsters, and relatives.
631302
It varies.  Arthropods are a phylum and they include insects, spiders, lobsters, horseshoe crabs and several other species.  \n\n"Arthropod bodies are segmented.  Members of some classes of arthropods have many body segments.  In others, the segments have become fused together into functional groups, or tagmata (singular, tagma), such as the head or thorax of an insect.  This fusing process is known as tagmatization, which is of central importance in the evolution of arthropods.  In most arthropods, the original segments can be distinguished during the development of the larvae.  To a certain extent, segments can also be reconstructed on the basis of careful morphological comparisons of adult structures.  All arthropods have a distinct head, sometimes fused with the thorax to form a tagma called the cephalothorax.  This is a distinguishing feature of the phylum."
484195
for internal in external structures and drawings.\nhttp://www.biologymad.com/Kidneys/Kidneys.htm
845358
What a cool project!  So to answer one of your questions, the crucial distinction among your phyla will be whether or not they're chordates -- which of course includes the vertebrates (but also some invertebrates such as sea squirts and certain worms).  \n\nSo your bipedal wolf (I'm assuming the missing d was a typo, but if "bipeal" is a word from your universe, please let me know) would be phylum chordata, class vertebrata, order mammalia, family canidae, genus canus, species lupus bipedalis (and I'm envisioning something like a cross between Lawrence Talbot and Speaker-to-Animals, without retractible claws).  But that's just off the top of my head.\n\nOne thing I've discussed with my ten-year-old son is the absence of hexapod vertebrates -- e.g. flying horses, winged dragons, etc.  If you were closer, I'd invite you over for coffee and an all-day discussion of where to classify them, and how they evolved.  Since all terrestrial vertebrates have essentially the same structure, it's clear they all shared a common ancestor which makes hexapodal vertebrates, sadly, impossible in our known universe -- so was there a hexapodal (imaginary) marine vertebrate who also scuttled across the floors of silent seas before crawling out of the surf and saying "Hey, the carcharodons can't get me here!  Kewl!"?  ...Which of course suggests all sorts of hexapodal marine vertebrates that shared the same skeletal architecture.  Ooooh, fun.\n\nAnd the final question... so zoology is the study of animals.  There's also cryptozoology, which I've described flippantly as "the study of imaginary animals."  But of course, it's more technically the study of animals that may or may not exist.  So what would we call your zoology, which is the study of animals you've intentionally invented?  Oh, of course, poeiazoology (-poeia, meaing to construct -- as in mythopoeia, the term Tolkien invented to describe the invention of mythologies.)\n\nAnd on that note, elen sila lumen omentielvo!
588153
This is going way back for me, but I thought that most crustaceans you had to actually dissect them before you could tell.  Sorry, I might be thinking of another class of animals.  I remember learning the answer to your question way back in junior high.
1046830
If you go to the Tree of Life WWW page at the level Arthropod (Phylum), you will see that cockroaches are insects (Class Hexapoda) and lobsters are decapod crustaceans (Class Crustacea); they are two groups in the same phylum, URL:\n \nTree of Life (at Arthropoda level) - http://tolweb.org/tree?group=Arthropoda&contgroup=Bilateria\n \nYou can move up the tree to see how arthropods are related to other animals.\n \nBeyond classification which should reflect the lobster and cockroach evolutionary relationship, the term 'roaches of the sea' reflects the behavior of lobsters as omnivorous scavengers.   Cockroaches will eat almost anything organic and so will lobsters.   They clean up the dead and dying plants and animals in their environment.\n \nSo much for the delicious taste of lobster?
614165
As a matter of fact... that's a Spiny King Crab (Paralithodes rathbuni)!\n\nhttp://www.mbayaq.org/efc/living_species/default.asp?hOri=1&inhab=192
539260
The living creature itself and the environments surrounding it.
50614
Yes.\n\nA Yahoo search on:\n\nanatomy of a shrimp heart\n\nbrought up this Web site with a diagram:\n\nhttp://www.shrimpcrabsandcrayfish.co.uk/Shrimp.htm?Anatomy.htm~mainFrame
434046
Yahoo images will show you. type (African Coconut Crab)
175397
IFu are very much intreasted in studying that spider then take a book of PHYLUM ARTHROPODA  in invertebrate classification \nand identify the feautures like spines legs
302055
Illustration\nhttp://members.aol.com/DinoPixels/ankylo.html
301949
Arthropods (phylum Arthropoda) (Greek for jointed feet) are the largest phylum of animals and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others. Approximately eighty percent of extant animal species are arthropods, with over a million modern species described and a fossil record reaching back to the early Cambrian. Arthropods are common throughout marine, freshwater, terrestrial, and even aerial environments, as well as including various symbiotic and parasitic forms. They range in size from microscopic plankton (~0.25 mm) up to forms several metres long.\n\nArthropods are characterised by the possession of a segmented body with appendages on each segment. They have a dorsal heart and a ventral nervous system. All arthropods are covered by a hard exoskeleton that is made out of chitin, a polysaccharide. Periodically, an arthropod sheds this covering when it moults. This covering makes arthropods less prone to dehydration.\n\nThe success of the arthropods is related to their hard exoskeleton, segmentation, and jointed appendages. The appendages are used for feeding, sensory reception, defence, and locomotion.\n\nMost arthropods respire (breathe) through a tracheal system (exceptions are Pauropoda, some thysanurans and some arachnids like many mites); a potential difficulty considering that the skeletal structure is external and covers nearly all of the body. Aquatic arthropods use gills to exchange gases. These gills have an extensive surface area in contact with the surrounding water. Terrestrial arthropods have internal surfaces that are specialised for gas exchange. Insects have tracheal systems: air sacs leading into the body from pores, called spiracles, in the epidermis cuticle.\n\nArthropods have an open circulatory system. Haemolymph, a copper-based blood analogue, is propelled by a series of hearts into the body cavity where it comes in direct contact with the tissues. Arthropods are protostomes. There is a coelom, but it is reduced to a tiny cavity around the reproductive and excretory organs, and the dominant body cavity is a haemocoel, filled with haemolymph which bathes the organs directly. The arthropod body is divided into a series of distinct segments, plus a presegmental acron which usually supports compound and simple eyes and a postsegmental telson. These are grouped into distinct, specialised body regions called tagmata. Each segment at least primitively supports a pair of appendages.\n\nThe cuticle in arthropods forms a rigid exoskeleton, composed mainly of chitin, which is periodically shed as the animal grows. They contain an inner zone (procuticle) which is made of protein and chitin (a polysaccharide) and is responsible for the strength of the exoskeleton. The outer zone (epicuticle) lies on the surface of the procuticle. It is nonchitinous and is a complex of proteins and lipids. It provides the moisture proofing and protection to the procuticle. The exoskeleton takes the form of plates called sclerites on the segments, plus rings on the appendages that divide them into segments separated by joints. This is in fact what gives arthropods their name — jointed feet — and separates them from their relatives, the Onychophora and Tardigrada, also called Lobopoda (and which is sometimes included in a group called Panarthropoda, that also includes true arthropods). The skeletons of arthropods strengthen them against attack by predators and are impermeable to water. In order to grow, an arthropod must shed its old exoskeleton and secrete a new one. This process, moulting, is expensive in terms of energy consumption, and during the moulting period, an arthropod is vulnerable.\n[edit]\n\nClassification of arthropods\n \nCommon Blue Damselfly (Enallagama cyathigerum), an insect\n\nArthropods are typically classified into five subphyla:\nTrilobites are a group of formerly numerous marine animals that died in the mass extinction at the end of the Permian.\nChelicerates include spiders, mites, scorpions and
640334
Fish die when out of water because they have an internal skeleton. Because of that there is nothing to support their body structure when they are taken out of water and their body, especially the gills and heart, collapse under their own weight.\n\nLobsters have an external skeleton. That external skeleton covers their entire body and supports the gills as well as the internal organs. As a result lobsters don't have so much of a problem on dry land. The external skeleton also serves to protect lobsters from drying out, whereas the internal skeleton of fish offers no protection at all.\n\nThis is an example of what is called pre-adaption. Lobsters, crabs and so forth didn't evolve an external skeleton to enable them to live on land, they evolved it because it provided armour and allowed them to move more easily. But a side-effect was that they were better able to survive life on land.\n\n\nThere are many fish species such as eels that are perfectly able to survive on land provided they are kept moist. That is because they don't rely on their gills for breathing. But they still alack an external skeleton and still have major problems with drying out.
1013392
http://www.innerbody.com/htm/body.html
1172565
These steps will separate most modern animal phyla.\n\nDeveloping:\nFrom a single cell to a multi-cellular body\nFrom radial to bilateral body symmetry\nFrom spiral to radial plane of cleavage in egg division\nFrom a blastopore that forms a mouth to a blastopore that forms the anus\nFrom an incomplete digestive track to complete\nFrom no coelom, to a pseudocoel, to a true coelom\nFrom a true coelom with 2 layers to one with 3 layers\nFrom a ventral nervous system to one that is dorsal\nComplicated organ systems: excretory, circulatory, respiratory\nFrom a non-segmented body to segmentation
950050
Of the million or more animal species in the world, more than 98% are invertebrates. Invertebrates don't have an internal skeleton made of bone. Many invertebrates have a fluid-filled, hydrostatic skeleton, like the jelly fish or worm. Others have a hard outer shell, like insects and crustaceans. There are many types of invertebrates. The most common invertebrates include the protozoa, annelids, echinoderms, mollusks and arthropods. Arthropods include insects, crustaceans and arachnids.