Gift

Nina
Conrad
Hemichordata
 About Hemichordata
• It is a phylum that has marine deuterostomes.

• It’s a small phylum with 100 known species.

• Some species can be solitary or can occur in colonies.

• Once thought to be chordates till proved otherwise
since they have no post-anal tail, or even a notochord.
• Example is Balanoglossus gigas (1.5m in length)
Phylum Hemichordata (85 species)

•Class Enteropneusta (acorn worms)

•Class Pterobranchia (Sea Angels)

Evolutionary Perspective
 Evolutionary Perspective
• Echinoderms, Hemichordates, and Chordates
are most likely derived from a common (yet
undiscovered) ancestor, since they all share
deuterostomes characteristics.
 Shared
Characteristics
 Shared charecteristics
Which are shared by both Chordates and
Hemichordates?
•Pharyngeal slits
•Most have a dorsal (sometimes hollow) nerve cord.
•Hemichordates appear diverged close to a point at
which the chordates originated.
This shows that evolutionary ties between
Hemichordates and Chordates are closer
Hemichordates
Characteristics

.
 Hemichordates
• Hemichordata means “half chord”
• Includes: Acorn worms and Pterobranchs
• Live in or on marine sediments
• Most have modified proboscis
• They posses some few chordate characteristics but
are not entirely chordates hence termed
hemichordate
• Threefold body division with:
proboscis, collar and a trunk
 Characteristics of Hemichordates
• Marine, deuterostomes

• bodies in 3 segments, collar, and trunk

• Ciliated pharyngeal slits

 Characteristics of Hemichordates
• Open circulatory system
• Complete digestive tract
• Dorsal (sometimes hollow) nerve cord
 Conflicting
views
of
Deuterostomes
• .
 Conflicting views of
Deuterostomes phylogeny
• Hemichordates, Fossil Stylophorans, and Chordates
all have pharyngeal slits and a dorsal nerve chord,
BUT
• Echinoderms do not, yet Hemichordates are the
sister group of Echinoderms and not of Chordates,
and Stylophorans are more related to echinoderms
then they are to chordates.
 Classification of Phylum
Hemichordata
Phylum Hemichordata is divided into two classes which are:
•Enteropneusta: The class includes acorn worms.
They have a vermiform body and are found on
sandy beaches near seas in warm climates

•Pterobranchia: They have a tube dwelling and live

in deep sea waters. They are bottom dwellers who
attach to other organisms for their survival
Class Enteropneusta
 Class Enteropneusta In General
• Acorn worms-named so because of the
proboscis at the anterior end

• 75 species, 10-40 cm usually

CLASS: ENTEROPNEUSTA
 Class Enteropneusta In General

Commonly referred to as acorn worms

These animals burrow in marine sediments

have worm-like bodies divided into a
proboscis, collar, and trunk
Characteristics
of
Acorn Worms
Class Enteropneusta
 Adult Characteristics of Acorn Worms
3 partite coelom like echinoderms
Proboscis for digging (protocoel)
Stomochord first considered a
notochord

Collar with mouth (mesocoel)

Main body is the trunk (metacoel)

Up to 100 pair of pharyngeal slits

NB. An epidermal net like the echinoderm

Nervous system
but in some dorsal hollow nerve cord
 CLASS: ENTEROPNEUSTA
Commonly referred to as acorn worms.

These animals burrow in marine sediments have worm-

like bodies divided into a proboscis, collar, and trunk.
Posses a prominent proboscis, a collar and a slimy trunk.

Sexes are separate or united

Fertilization is external

Open circulatory system.

Mostly sexual reproduction

Have a primitive nervous system

CLASS: ENTEROPNEUSTA
Up to 2 metres in length

Triploblastic

Each of these three regions have a separate coelomic

compartment filled with spongy tissue that provides some
mechanical support.
Bilateral symmetry

The proboscis is the main organ for locomotion.

The trunk is pulled along passively

They are coelomate

They can be solitary or in colonies

CLASS: ENTEROPNEUSTA
 The three regions have a separate coelomic
compartment filled with spongy tissue that
provides some mechanical support.

 Acorn worms either live in U-shaped burrows in

shallow water or they burrow through marine
sediment or live under rocks or seaweed

 Acorn worms either live in U-shaped burrows in

shallow water or they burrow through marine
sediment or live under rocks or seaweed
CLASS: ENTEROPNEUSTA

Feeding
Of
Acorn Worms
CLASS: ENTEROPNEUSTA
feeding
 Many acorn worms feed by ingesting
large quantities of mud or sand from
which the gut extracts organic
debris

 Others feed by means of cilia on the

proboscis which pass the food backwards into
the mouth .
 Food particles are bound on a mucous string and
are swallowed along with the water
CLASS: ENTEROPNEUSTA

Internal Structure
CLASS: ENTEROPNEUSTA
internal Structure
 The pharyngeal slits are U-shaped openings in the
pharynx that can swallow water in to the pharyngeal
pouches and out through the gill pores.

 The body: surface is the main route for respiratory

exchange.

 The colourless blood is pumped anteriorly by a dorsal

vessel into a contracting heart vessel in the proboscis
and then posteriorly by a ventral vessel – an open
circulatory system.
CLASS: ENTEROPNEUSTA
internal Structure cont’d
 The glomerulus is assumed to have an excretory
function
 The nervous system consists largely of a diffuse
network in the base of the epidermis.
 Along the dorsal and ventral midlines this plexus
is concentrated into dorsal and ventral nerve
cords which lack ganglia.
 In places the nerve cord is hollow and similar to
the hollow dorsal nerve of the chordates.
 Sexes are separate and fertilization is external
 Class
Pterobranchia

.
Class Pterobranchia
• Name means “wing or feather gills”

• Around 20 species-Rhabdopleura

• Small-0.1-5 mm, often living in secreted tubes

in asexually produced colonies
Class Pterobranchia
• Proboscis is shield-like and secretes the tube

• Found mostly in deep oceans of the Southern

hemisphere

• Use cilia on arms/tentacles to filter and

transport food to mouth
 CLASS:
PTEROBRANCHIA
 Ten species in this class

 Live in colonies

 Larval bodies divided into a proboscis, collar and

trunk

 The collar expands dorsally into tentacle arms

which possess cilia that direct food into ciliated
grooves which carry it to the mouth
 CLASS:
PLANCTOSPHAEROI
DEA

• .
 CLASS: PLANCTOSPHAEROIDEA

 There is some dispute about this class as only the

larvae are well known General Characteristics:
Internal Structure