Arthropods

We can all recognise an arthropod. Arthropods are all animals with a jointed exoskeleton. This means they have a tough outer skeleton and their legs and bodies are hinged, or jointed, to allow for movement. Arthropods grow by shedding their exoskeleton and growing a new one.

Arthropods include insects, crustaceans (like lobsters and crabs) and other animals, millipedes, centipedes, spiders and scorpions. There are also many extinct groups of arthropods that we only know from fossils. Probably the most important of these are the trilobites.