What is a chordate body plan?
The body plan of a chordate includes a post-anal tail, notochord, dorsal hollow nerve cord, and pharyngeal slits. In some chordates, all four traits persist throughout life and serve important functions. However, in many chordates, including humans, all four traits are present only during the embryonic stage.
What are the general classification of chordates?
Phylum Chordata is divided into three subphyla: Urochordata or Tunicata, Cephalochordata and Vertebrata. Subphyla Urochordata and Cephalochordata are often referred to as protochordates and are exclusively marine.
What are the general characteristics of phylum Chordata?
Animals in the phylum Chordata share four key features: a notochord, a dorsal hollow nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, and a post-anal tail.
What are chordates with explain?
We can define chordate as follows: “The chordates are the class of animals that possess four anatomical features, namely (1) notochord, (2) dorsal nerve cord, (3) post-anal tail, and (4) pharyngeal slits, at least during some part of their development into maturity.”
What are the three subphyla of chordates?
The prevailing view holds that the phylum Chordata consists of three subphyla: Urochordata (Tunicata), Cephalochordata and Vertebrata (figure 1a). All three groups are characterized by possession of a notochord, a dorsal, hollow neural tube (nerve cord), branchial slits, an endostyle, myotomes and a postanal tail.
What are the general characteristics of vertebrates?
Vertebrates have five key characteristics that are common to all vertebrates.
- They have a backbone.
- They have a skull.
- They have an endoskeleton.
- They have bilateral symmetry.
- They have two pairs of appendages.
What are the three basic characteristics of chordates?
In chordates, four common features appear at some point during development: a notochord, a dorsal hollow nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, and a post-anal tail.
Which are considered a blueprint of the phylum Chordata?
Answer. Answer: The lancelets are also called cephalochordates,because the notochord extends from near the tip of the tail to well into the anterior of the body. Because they do not have the braincase, or cranium, of a vertebrate, lancelets are often called acraniates.
What is chordates origin?
Chordates evolved from some deuterostome ancestor (echinoderms, hemichordates, pogonophorans etc.) as they have similarities in embryonic development, type of coelom and larval stages. Fossils of the earliest vertebrates are known from the Silurian-Devonian period, about 400 million years ago.
What is the difference between notochord and backbone?
Notochord refers to a cartilaginous, skeletal rod, supporting the body in all embryonic and some adult chordate animals while vertebral column refers to the flexible column, extending from the neck to tail, made of a series of bones. Thus, this is the main difference between notochord and vertebral column.
What is vertebrate body plan?
All vertebrates are built along the basic chordate body plan: a stiff rod running through the length of the animal (vertebral column), with a hollow tube of nervous tissue (the spinal cord) above it and the gastrointestinal tract below.
What is phylum Chordata in biology?
ChordateVertebrate / Phylum
What is nerve cord and notochord?
The nerve cord is a nervous tissue present above the notochord. It is present in the embryonic stage of vertebrates and develops into a brain and spinal cord. The notochord is a cartilaginous skeletal rod present in the embryonic stages of vertebrates and is replaced by a vertebral column.
What is definition of notochord?
Definition of notochord : a longitudinal flexible rod of cells that in the lowest chordates (such as a lancelet or a lamprey) and in the embryos of the higher vertebrates forms the supporting axis of the body.
What are the 3 primary defining characteristics of chordates?
What is a basic body plan?
A body plan is a group of structural and developmental characteristics that can be used to identify a group of animals, such as a phylum. All members of a particular group share the same body plan at some point during their development—in the embryonic, larval, or adult stage.
What is the basic body plan of animals?
At a very basic level of classification, true animals can be largely divided into three groups based on the type of symmetry of their body plan: radially symmetrical, bilaterally symmetrical, and asymmetrical.
What is notochord and function?
The notochord is the defining structure of the chordates, and has essential roles in vertebrate development. It serves as a source of midline signals that pattern surrounding tissues and as a major skeletal element of the developing embryo.