Invertebrates

An invertebrate is any animal without a backbone, or vertebra. Approximately 98% of all animals are invertebrates. They include everything from worms to squid to shellfish to spiders. Vertebrates are animals that do have a backbone, for example, a cat. Invertebrates have no complex skeletal system.

Whelks and conches, like the one who lived in this shell, have no backbones; they are invertebrates.

Kingdom

The Linnean system of taxonomy, or classification of organisms, is based on many subdivions and categories. They are: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. A species is part of a genus which is part of a family, et cetera. The traditional Kingdoms include Monera (now split into archaebacteria and eubacteria), Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia.

The "Animal Kingdom" theme park atWalt Disney World in Orlando, Florida is a pun on the various kingdoms of life. In this sense, the word refers to a kingdom as in a place (like their "Magic Kingdom")  full of the members of the kingdom Animalia.

Population

A population is all of a certain group of organisms of the same species that breeds together and lives in a certain area. It comes from the Latin word populus, which means "people."

These casts are replicas of corals from the population of coral that is off the coast of southern Florida.