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Idealised vertebrate body plan, showing key characteristics. Vertebrates (and other chordates) belong to the Bilateria, a group of animals with mirror symmetrical bodies. [6] They move, typically by swimming, using muscles along the back, supported by a strong but flexible skeletal structure, the spine or vertebral column. [7]
Chordates are also bilaterally symmetric, have a coelom, possess a closed circulatory system, and exhibit metameric segmentation. Although the name Chordata is attributed to William Bateson (1885), it was already in prevalent use by 1880. Ernst Haeckel described a taxon comprising tunicates, cephalochordates, and vertebrates in 1866.
This article contains a list of all of the classes and orders that are located in the Phylum Chordata. The subphyla Tunicata and Vertebrata are in the unranked Olfactores clade, while the subphylum Cephalochordata is not. Animals in Olfactores are characterized as having a more advanced olfactory system than animals not in it.
Agnatha (/ ˈ æ ɡ n ə θ ə, æ ɡ ˈ n eɪ θ ə /; [3] from Ancient Greek ἀ-(a-) 'without' and γνάθος (gnáthos) 'jaws') is a paraphyletic infraphylum [4] of non-gnathostome vertebrates, or jawless fish, in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, consisting of both living (cyclostomes) and extinct (conodonts, anaspids, and ostracoderms, among others).
The main deuterostome phyla are the Ambulacraria and the Chordata. [147] Ambulacraria are exclusively marine and include acorn worms, starfish, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers. [148] The chordates are dominated by the vertebrates (animals with backbones), [149] which consist of fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. [150] [151] [152]
The Chordata ancestor gave rise to the lancelets (Amphioxii) and Olfactores. Ancestral chordates evolved a post-anal tail , notochord , and endostyle (precursor of thyroid). The pharyngeal slits (or gills ) are now supported by connective tissue and used for filter feeding and possibly breathing .
Segmentation in animals typically falls into three types, characteristic of different arthropods, vertebrates, and annelids. Arthropods such as the fruit fly form segments from a field of equivalent cells based on transcription factor gradients. Vertebrates like the zebrafish use oscillating gene expression to define segments known as somites.
Below is a phylogenetic tree of the phylum Chordata. Lines show probable evolutionary relationships, including extinct taxa, which are denoted with a dagger, †. Some groups in this tree (lancelets and tunicates) are invertebrates. The positions (relationships) of the lancelet, tunicate, and craniate clades are as reported.