For each phylum that we cover answer any of the following questions that pertain to that phylum.

1. What does the phylum name mean?
2. What are the unique characteristics of the phylum?
3. What is the level of organization?
4. What is the symmetry?
5. How many germ layers are there?
6. Does it have a coelom? If so, what type?
7. Is cephalization present?
8. Does this phylum have segmentation?
9. What is the method of respiration?
10. How does this phylum handle excretion/osmoregulation? What structures are used? What is the major nitrogenous waste?
11. Does this phylum have a circulatory system? If so, is it open or closed? Does it have a heart? If so, how many chambers?
12. What type(s) of reproduction are used? What type of life cycles are seen in this phylum? Is asexual reproduction used? Describe. Sexual reproduction - monecious, dioecious? Fertilization - internal or external? Larval stages? Present/absent? Any unique?
13. Protostome or deuterostome?
14. What habitat - terrestrial, freshwater, marine?
15. Life-style? Free-living - sessile, mobile? Symbiotic - commensal, mutualistic, parasite?
16. Feeding and digestion - herbivore, carnivore, predator, scavenger, filter-feeder, suspension feeder.
17. Digestive tract- Absent/Present, GVC (incomplete) or complete. Any methods, structures of note?
18. Nervous system? CNS? Nerve net, ladder-type, dorsal and ventral cords?
19. Sensory structures: types, any unique?