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A chordate (/ ˈ k ɔːr d eɪ t / KOR-dayt) is a deuterostomal bilaterian animal belonging to the phylum Chordata (/ k ɔːr ˈ d eɪ t ə / kor-DAY-tə).All chordates possess, at some point during their larval or adult stages, five distinctive physical characteristics (synapomorphies) that distinguish them from other taxa.
The notochord is an elastic, rod-like structure found in chordates. In chordate vertebrates the notochord is an embryonic structure that disintegrates, as the vertebrae develop, to become the nucleus pulposus in the intervertebral discs of the vertebral column.
The lancelet notochord, unlike the vertebrate spine, extends into the head. This gives the subphylum, Cephalochordata, its name ( κεφαλή , kephalē means 'head'). The fine structure of the notochord and the cellular basis of its adult growth are best known for the Bahamas lancelet, Asymmetron lucayanum [ 51 ]
The 70 species of larvaceans superficially resemble the tadpole larvae of amphibians, although the tail is at right angles to the body. The notochord is retained, and the animals, mostly under 1 cm long, are propelled by undulations of the tail. They secrete an external mucous net known as a house, which may completely surround them and is very ...
A stiffening rod of tightly packed cells, the notochord, extends the whole length of the body. Unlike vertebrates, the notochord persists in the adult, in the form of a simple dorsal neural tube slightly thickened in the anterior part (the cerebral vesicle). Above it is a nerve cord with a single frontal eye.
According to these fossils, conodonts had large eyes, fins with fin rays, chevron-shaped muscles and axial line, which were interpreted as notochord or the dorsal nerve cord. [ 31 ] [ 35 ] While Clydagnathus and Panderodus had lengths only reaching 4–5 cm (1.6–2.0 in), Promissum is estimated to reach 40 cm (16 in) in length, if it had the ...
The notochord was reinterpreted to run underneath the dorsal organ a thin rod-like filament. The body segments are anatomically blocks of skeletal muscles, called the myomeres, which are found in vertebrates only. No eyes can be observed. [24] The muscle orientation and flat shaped body indicate that Pikaia was an active and free swimmer. [8]
Pikaia gracilens is an extinct, primitive chordate marine animal known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia.Described in 1911 by Charles Doolittle Walcott as an annelid, and in 1979 by Harry B. Whittington and Simon Conway Morris as a chordate, it became "the most famous early chordate fossil", [1] or "famously known as the earliest described Cambrian chordate". [2]