Chordates Notes

Origin and Evolution of Vertebrates

Ch. 34

Chordate Characteristics:
-

Present in embryos; not always in adults

Notochord
o Flexible dorsal rod; endoskeleton works with muscles
Dorsal, hollow nerve chord
o Tube forms from fold of ectoderm dorsal to notochord
Pharyngeal slits or clefts
o Ancestral use: filter-feeding and gas exchange
Sea -> mouth -> pharynx -> slits -> sea
Muscular post anal tail
o Multiple muscle segments
o Undulating locomotion

Cephalochordata: Lancelets
-

All key chordate features in adult

Burrows tail-in and suspension feeds

Urochordata: Tunicates (sea squirts)

-

Highly derived sessile adult: suspension feeds with pharyngeal slits

The tough tunic has cellulose
Swimming larva has all key chordate features

Vertebrates
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Vertebrae of cartilage/bone
Enclose spinal cord (dorsal nerve cord)
In most, vertebral column replaces notochord as main body support
Well-developed head
Cranium (skull of cartilage or bone)
Holds brain (coordination of voluntary and involuntary
responses)
Paired sensory organs
Heart (2-4 chambers with valves) and closed circulatory system
With hemoglobin in blood cells
Ventricle = power push
Gill arches/rods of cartilage or bone support gill slits
Earliest vertebrates
o First verts all jawless, fishlike

Sucked in food with help of gill arches

No lateral fins
o Many later jawless fish had bony armor plates
Some with lateral fins
All extinct by mid Paleozoic, replaced by jawed fishes
Jawless fish: myxini and petromyzontida
Eliminating craniate clades*
o Extant jawless vertebrates
Hagfish and lamprey (dorsal fins)
Eel-like with no lateral fins
Cartilage skull; no jaws
Keratinous teeth aid in feeding
Mostly use notochord; but spinal cartilages present also
Myxini: hagfish
o Marine scavengers
o Reduced eyes
o ***slime*** defensive (threads and mucous)
Petromyzondita: Lampreys
o Jawless parasite on a fish
o Keratinous teeth
Most vertebrates have jaws
Gnathostomes
o Gnathostome characteristics
Vertebrates with jaws
Derived from gill slit supports
Usually have teeth (predation)
Larger forebrain (smell and sight)
Paired lateral fins/limbs (usually 2 pair)
Pectoral and pelvic

ALL VERTEBRATES are chordates

Tunicates and lancelets develop notochords but not skulls
And are invertebrates