Metazoa

Related Category: Moneran and Protistan

(mĕt´´əzō´ə), subkingdom of the animal kingdom comprising the multicellular animals in the traditional two-kingdom system of taxonomic classification, in which living organisms were considered to be either plants or animals. Metazoa included all animals except the protozoans, formerly classified as in the phylum Protozoa but now classified in the kingdom Protista. The term is still used informally.