Deuterostome

Deuterostomia; Temporal range: late Ediacaran – Recent
	A sea cucumber
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Clade:	Nephrozoa
Superphylum:	Deuterostomia; Grobben, 1908
Phyla and clades
	Echinodermata (20,000 species); Hemichordata (71 species); Chordata (63,000+ species); Saccorhytida (one species of fossil); "Ambulacraria";

Deuterostomes are a nephrozoan superphylum of bilaterian animals, a taxon above the level of phylum. It is not part of the usual system of classification.

They are bilateral animals, and are contrasted with the protostomes. Deuterostomes are distingued by their embryo: in deuterostomes, the first opening (the blastopore) becomes the anus, while in protostomes it becomes the mouth.

Classification[change | change source]

These are the living phyla of deuterostomes:

Chordata (vertebrates and their kin)
Echinodermata (starfishes, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, etc.)
Hemichordata (acorn worms and possibly graptolites)

This is an extinct deuterostome clade:

Saccorhytida