Biol 311: Evolutionary Biology

Evolution of the Vertebrates

PowerPoint® Lecture Presentations for

Biology
Eighth Edition
Neil Campbell and Jane Reece

Lectures by Chris Romero, updated by Erin Barley with contributions from Joan Sharp
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 Learning outcomes:
1.identify the derived characters that all
chordates have at some point of their lives
2. trace the early chordate evolution
3. explain the derived characters of
craniates
4. trace the origin of the craniates
5. describe the derived characters of
vertebrates
6. trace the origin of the vertebrates
7. describe three key amniotic adaptation
for life on land
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 Learning outcomes:
8. trace th e origin of the tetrapods
9. describe the derived characters of the
tetrapods
10.explain the derived characters of the
amniotes
10. elaborate on the radiation of the reptiles
11. trace the origin and evolutionary
radiation of the reptiles
12. describe the derived characters of the
birds

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 Introduction
• Vertebrates are animals that have
vertebral column or the
backbone.
• about 52,000 species of
vertebrates, including the largest
organisms ever to live on the
Earth

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Derived Characters of Chordates
• All chordates share a set of
derived characters
• Some species have some of these
traits only during embryonic
development

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 Four key characters of chordates:
Dorsal,
Muscle hollow
segments nerve cord
Notochord

Mouth
Anus Pharyngeal
Muscular, slits or clefts
post-anal tail
Figure 34.3 Chordate characteristics. All chordates possess the four highlighted structural
trademarks at some point during their development.

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 Derived Characters of Chordates
1. Notochord
• a longitudinal, flexible rod between the
digestive tube and nerve cord
• provides skeletal support throughout
most of the length of a chordate
• In most vertebrates
– a more complex, jointed skeleton
develops
– the adult retains only remnants of the
embryonic notochord
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 Derived Characters of Chordates
2. Dorsal, Hollow Nerve Cord
• nerve cord of a chordate embryo
 develops from a plate of ectoderm
that rolls into a tube dorsal to the
notochord
• develops into the central nervous
system in the adult stage

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 Derived Characters of Chordates
3. Pharyngeal Slits or Clefts
• In most chordates, pharyngeal clefts develop
into slits that open to the outside of the body
• Functions of pharyngeal slits:
– Suspension-feeding structures in many
invertebrate chordates
– Gas exchange in vertebrates (except
vertebrates with limbs, the tetrapods)
– Develop into parts of the ear, head, and
neck in tetrapods
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 Derived Characters of Chordates

4. Muscular, Post-Anal Tail

• Chordates have a tail posterior to the
anus
• In many species, the tail is greatly
reduced during embryonic
development
• The tail contains skeletal elements and
muscles
• It provides propelling force in many
aquatic species
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 Early Chordate Evolution
• Ancestral chordates may have
resembled lancelets
• Genome sequencing of tunicates has
identified genes shared by tunicates
and vertebrates
• Gene expression in lancelets holds
clues to the evolution of the
vertebrate form

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 Early Chordate Evolution
Lancelets
• Lancelets (Cephalochordata) are
named for their bladelike shape
• marine suspension feeders
• retain characteristics of the
chordate body plan as adults

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Fig. 34-4

Cirri
2 cm

Mouth

Pharyngeal slits
Atrium

Notochord
Digestive tract

Dorsal, hollow Atriopore

nerve cord
Segmental
muscles

Anus

Tail

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Tunicates
• Tunicates (Urochordata)
– more closely related to other
chordates than are lancelets
• marine suspension feeders commonly
known as sea squirts
• As adult
– a tunicate draws in water through an
incurrent siphon to filter food
particles

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Tunicates
• Tunicates most resemble chordates during their
larval stage, which may last only a few minutes
Incurrent
siphon Water flow Notochord
to mouth
Dorsal,
Excurrent hollow
siphon
nerve cord
Excurrent Excurrent Tail
siphon siphon
Atrium
Muscle
Incurrent segments
Pharynx siphon
with Intestine
slits Anus
Stomach
Tunic Intestine
Atrium
Esophagus
Pharynx with slits
An adult Stomach
tunicate A tunicate larva

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Figure 34.6 Expression of developmental genes in lancelets and vertebrates. Hox genes (including
BF1, Otx, and Hox3) control the development of major regions of the vertebrate brain. These
genes are expressed in the same anterior-to-posterior order in lancelets and vertebrates. Each
colored bar is positioned above the portion of the brain whose development that gene controls.

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 Early Chordate Evolution
• Early Cambrian period(some 530 MYA)
 an immense variety of invertebrate
animals inhabited Earth’s oceans
 Predators used sharp claws and
mandibles to skewer their prey.
 protective spikes or armour as well as
modified mouthparts enabled their
bearers to filter food from the water
 Myllokunmingia fengjiaoa
 slender, 3-cm-long creatures gliding through the water

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 Early Chordate Evolution

Figure 34.1Myllokunmingia fengjiaoa fossil

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 Early Chordate Evolution
• Myllokunmingia
 had ear capsules and eye
capsules, parts of the skull that
surround these organs
•Based on these and other characters,
paleontologists have identified
Myllokunmingia as a true craniate.

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 Early Chordate Evolution
• Ancestral chordates may have
resembled lancelets
• Genome sequencing of tunicates has
identified genes shared by tunicates
and vertebrates
• Gene expression in lancelets holds
clues to the evolution of the
vertebrate form
• Research on lancelets has also
revealed important clues about the
evolution of the chordate brain.
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 Early Chordate Evolution
• Lancelets have only a slightly swollen
tip on the anterior end of their dorsal
nerve cord
• Tunicates
their genome has been completely
sequenced and can be used to
identify genes likely to have been
present in early chordates

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 Early Chordate Evolution
Figure 34.6
Expression of
developmental
genes in lancelets
and vertebrates.
Hox genes
(including BF1, Otx,
and Hox3) control
the development of
major regions of the
vertebrate brain.
These genes are
expressed in the
same anterior-to-
posterior order in
lancelets and
vertebrates. Each
colored bar is

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 Early Chordate Evolution
Phylum Chordata (Early Chordate Evolution)
• Subphylum Cephalochordata
• Subphylum Urochordata
• Subphylum Vertebrata
1) Class Agnatha
2) Class Chondrycthyes
3) Class Osteichthyes
4) Class Amphibia
5) Class Reptilia
6) Class Aves
7) Class Mammalia

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 Early Chordate Evolution

Figure 34.5 A tunicate, a urochordate.

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Derived Characters of Craniates
• Craniates have two clusters of Hox
genes
• lancelets and tunicates have only one
cluster
• Neural crest
 a collection of cells near the dorsal
margins of the closing neural tube in
an embryo
• Neural crest cells give rise some of the
bones and cartilages of the skull.
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 Derived Characters of Craniates
• aquatic craniates
 pharyngeal clefts evolved into gill
slits
• higher metabolism and are more
muscular than tunicates and lancelets
• have a heart with at least two
chambers, red blood cells with
hemoglobin, and kidneys

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 The Origin of Craniates
• 1990s
 paleontologists who were working
in China discovered a vast supply
of fossils of early chordates that
appear to straddle the transition to
craniates
 fossils were formed during the
Cambrian explosion 530MYA, when
many groups of animals were
diversifying
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 The Origin of Craniates

Figure 34.8 Fossil of an early chordate. Discovered in 1999 in southern China,

Haikouella had eyes and a brain but lacked a skull, a derived trait of craniates.

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 The Origin of Craniates
• most primitive of the fossils are the 3-cm-long
Haikouella
• Haikouella resembled a lancelet.
• Its mouth structure indicates that, like
lancelets, it probably was a suspension feeder.
• However, Haikouella also had some of the
characters of craniates.
• It lacked a skull or ear organs, suggesting that
these characters emerged with further
innovations to the chordate nervous system.

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 Figure 34.2 Myxini, the most basal group of craniates.
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 Craniates: chordates with a head

• The origin of a head opened up a

completely new way of feeding for
chordates: active predation
• Craniates share some
characteristics: a skull, brain, eyes,
and other sensory organs

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 Derived Characters of Craniates
• Craniates have two clusters of Hox
genes; lancelets and tunicates have
only one cluster
• Neural crest
– a collection of cells near the dorsal
margins of the closing neural tube in
an embryo
• Neural crest cells give rise some of
the bones and cartilage of the skull
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 Figure 34.7 The neural crest, embryonic source of many unique craniate characters.

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 Derived Characters of Craniates
• In aquatic craniates the pharyngeal
clefts evolved into gill slits
• Craniates have a higher metabolism and
are more muscular than tunicates and
lancelets
• Craniates have a heart with at least two
chambers, red blood cells with
hemoglobin, and kidneys

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 A closer look at Vertebrate Evolution
• more than 150MY
 vertebrates were restricted to the ocean
 evolution of limbs in some vertebrates set
them to colonize the land
• approximately 52,000 species of vertebrates
• vertebrates include:
 the heaviest animals ever to inhabit the
terrestrial habitat
 plant-eating dinosaurs were as massive
as 40,000 kg (more than 13 pickup
trucks).

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 A closer look at Vertebrate Evolution
 In the vast oceans were the biggest
animal ever to exist on Earth
 the blue whale, which can exceed
a mass of 100,000 kg.
 On the other end of the spectrum,
a fish discovered in 2004 is just
8.4 mm long and has a mass
roughly 100 billion times smaller
than that of a blue whale.

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 Vertebrates are craniates that have a
backbone

• Cambrian period
 a lineage of craniates evolved into
vertebrates
• Vertebrates became more efficient at
capturing food and avoiding being
eaten

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 Hagfishes
• The least derived surviving craniate
lineage is Myxini, the hagfishes
• have a cartilaginous skull and axial rod
of cartilage derived from the
notochord, but lack jaws and vertebrae
• small brain, eyes, ears, and a nasal
opening that connects with the pharynx
• mouths contain tooth-like formations
made of the protein keratin

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Fig. 34-9

Slime glands
Derived Characters of Vertebrates
• Vertebrates have the following derived
characters:
 Vertebrae enclosing a spinal cord
 An elaborate skull
 Fin rays, in the aquatic forms

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Derived Characters of Vertebrates
• After vertebrates branched off from
other craniates, they underwent
another gene duplication
 transcription factor genes known as
the Dlx family
• In some vertebrates, the vertebrae are
little more than small prongs of
cartilage arrayed dorsally along the
notochord.

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Derived Characters of Vertebrates
• majority of vertebrates
 vertebral/spinal column has taken over
the mechanical roles of the notochord
• Aquatic vertebrates also acquired dorsal,
ventral, and anal fins stiffened by bony
structures known as fin rays
 provide thrust and steering control when
swimming
• Faster swimming was supported by other
adaptations, including a more efficient gas
exchange system in the gills.

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 Ray-finned Fish - Actinopterygii
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 Lampreys
• Lampreys (Petromyzontida) represent
the oldest living lineage of vertebrates
• jawless vertebrates inhabiting various
marine and freshwater habitats
• They have cartilaginous segments
surrounding the notochord and
arching partly over the nerve cord

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Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Benjamin Cummings
 • Lampreys (Petromyzontida)
represent the oldest living lineage of
vertebrates
• They are jawless vertebrates
inhabiting various marine and
freshwater habitats
• They have cartilaginous segments
surrounding the notochord and
arching partly over the nerve cord
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 Fossils of Early Vertebrates
• Cambrian Period
 many other lineages emerged
• Like lampreys, the early members
of these lineages lacked jaws, but
the resemblance stopped there.
• Conodonts were extremely
abundant for over 300 million years.

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 Fossils of Early Vertebrates
• Their fossilized dental elements are so
plentiful that they have been used for
decades by petroleum geologists as guides to
the age of rock layers in which they search for
oil.
• Conodonts
 early vertebrates that lived from the late
Cambrian until the late Triassic periods
 Unlike lampreys, conodonts had
mineralized mouthparts, which they used
for either predation or scavenging

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 Fossils of Early Vertebrates
• Vertebrates with additional innovations
emerged during the Ordovician, Silurian,
and Devonian periods.
• had paired fins
• an inner ear with two semi-circular canals
that provided a sense of balance just like
the lampreys
• lacked jaws
• had a muscular pharynx, which they may
have used to suck in bottom-dwelling
organisms or detritus

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 Fossils of Early Vertebrates

Figure 34.12 Jawless armored vertebrates. Pteraspis and

Pharyngolepis were two of many genera of jawless vertebrates
that emerged during the Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian
periods.
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 Fossils of Early Vertebrates
Origins of Bone and Teeth
• Mineralization appears to have
originated with vertebrate mouthparts
• The vertebrate endoskeleton became
fully mineralized much later

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Derived Characters of Gnathostomes
• named for their jaws, hinged structures that,
especially with the help of teeth
• Their teeth enabled gnathostomes to grip
food items firmly and slice them.
• According to one hypothesis:
 gnathostome jaws evolved by modification
of the skeletal rods that had previously
supported the anterior pharyngeal (gill)
slits
 The remaining gill slits remained as the
major sites of respiratory gas exchange
with the external environment.
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Gill slits Cranium

Mouth
Skeletal rods

Figure 34.13 Hypothesis for the evolution of vertebrate jaws.

The skeleton of the jaws and their supports may have evolved
from two pairs of skeletal rods (red and green) located
between gill slits near the mouth.
Derived Characters of Gnathostomes
• share other derived characters besides
jaws
• common ancestors of all gnathostomes
underwent an additional duplication of
Hox genes, such that the single set
present in early chordates became four
• Their forebrain is enlarged compared to
that of other craniates, mainly in
association with enhanced senses of
smell and vision.

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Derived Characters of Gnathostomes

• Aquatic gnathostomes
have a lateral line system
 organs that form a row along
each side of the body
 sensitive to vibrations in the
surrounding water

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 Evolution of the Gnathostomes

• Gnathostomes appeared in the fossil

record in the late Ordovician period,
about 450MYA, and steadily became
more diverse.
• Most placoderms were less than a
meter long, though some giant ones
measured more than 10 m

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 Figure 34.14 Fossil of an early gnathostome. The placoderm Dunkleosteus grew
up to 10 m in length. A 2006 analysis of its jaw structure concluded that
Dunkleosteus could exert a force of 560 kg/cm2 (8,000 pounds per square inch)
at the tip of its jaws.

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 Evolution of the Gnathostomes
• Acanthodians
 collective term for
other groups of
jawed vertebrates
 emerged at roughly
the same time and Acanthode: Acanthodian Permian
radiated during the fossil fish
Silurian and
Devonian periods
(444–359 million
years ago)
Acanthodian: Devonian Period

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 Evolution of the Gnathostomes
• Placoderms disappeared by 359MYA,
and acanthodians became extinct
about 70 million years later.
• In the past several years, new fossil
discoveries have revealed that 450–
420MYA was a period of tumultuous
evolutionary change.

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 Evolution of the Gnathostomes
• Gnathostomes that lived during this
period had highly variable forms
• by 420MYA, they had diverged into
the three lineages of jawed
vertebrates that survive today:
chondrichthyans, ray-finned fishes,
and lobe-fins.

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 Gnathostomes are vertebrates that
have jaws
• Today, jawed vertebrates, or
gnathostomes, outnumber jawless
vertebrates
• Gnathostomes have jaws that might
have evolved from skeletal supports
of the pharyngeal slits

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 Chondrichthyans (Sharks, Rays, and
Their Relatives)
• have a skeleton composed primarily
of cartilage
• The cartilaginous skeleton evolved
secondarily from an ancestral
mineralized skeleton
• The largest and most diverse group
of chondrichthyans includes the
sharks, rays, and skates

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 Chondrichthyans (Sharks, Rays, and
Their Relatives)

• Sharks
– have a streamlined body and are swift
swimmers
– carnivores
– have a short digestive tract; a ridge
called the spiral valve increases the
digestive surface area
– have acute senses

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 Shark

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 Shark
• Shark eggs are fertilized internally but
embryos can develop in different ways:
– Oviparous: eggs hatch outside the
mother’s body
– Ovoviviparous: the embryo develops
within the uterus and is nourished by
the egg yolk
– Viviparous: the embryo develops
within the uterus and is nourished
through a yolk sac placenta from the
mother’s blood
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 • Ray-Finned Fishes

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 Ray-finned Fish - Actinopterygii
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 • Lobe-Fin Fish

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 Osteichthyans
vast majority of vertebrates belong
to a clade of gnathostomes known as
Class Osteichthyes
 includes the bony fish and
tetrapods
 Nearly all living osteichthyans have
a bony endoskeleton

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 Aquatic osteichthyans
 informally known as the fishes
Most fishes breathe by drawing
water over gills protected by an
operculum
Fishes control their buoyancy with
an air sac known as a swim bladder

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 Lobe-Finned Fishes

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 salmon, trout, sharks
450 mya
Vertebrates: Fish
• Characteristics gills
– body structure
• bony & cartilaginous skeleton
• jaws & paired appendages (fins)
body
• scales
– body function
• gills for gas exchange
• two-chambered heart;
single loop blood circulation
• ectotherms
– reproduction
• external fertilization
• external development in
aquatic egg
 Tetrapods are gnathostomes that have
limbs
• One of the most significant events in
vertebrate history took place about
365MYA when the fins of some lobe-fins
evolved into the limbs and feet of
tetrapods.
• Tetrapods have some specific
adaptations:
– Four limbs, and feet with digits
– Ears for detecting airborne sounds
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 Transition to
Land
Evolution of
tetrapods

Humerus
Femur
Pelvis Ulna Shoulder
Tibia

Radius
Fibula Lobe-finned fish

Pelvis Femur
Humerus Shoulder

Radius
Tibia Ulna
Fibula
Early amphibian
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 Derived Characters of Tetrapods

• The most significant character

of tetrapods gives the group its
name, which means “four feet”
in Greek.

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Derived Characters of Tetrapods
• Terrestrial life brought numerous
other changes to the tetrapod body
plan.
 head is separated from the body by
a neck
 originally had one vertebra on
which the skull could move up and
down.
 origin of a second vertebra in the
neck, allowed the head to swing
from side to side
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Derived Characters of Tetrapods

• Terrestrial life
 bones of the pelvic girdle are
fused to the backbone
 permitting forces generated by
the hind legs against the ground
to be transferred to the rest of
the body

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Derived Characters of Tetrapods
• Terrestrial life
 Except for some fully aquatic
species:
 adults of living tetrapods do not
have gills
 during embryonic development,
the pharyngeal clefts instead
give rise to parts of the ears,
certain glands, and other
structures
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 The Origin of Tetrapods

• The Devonian coastal wetlands

were home to a wide range of
lobe-fins.
• Those that entered particularly
shallow, oxygen-poor water could
use their lungs to breathe air.

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 Figure 34.19
Acanthostega, a
Devonian relative of
tetrapods

Bones
supporting
gills

Tetrapod
limb
skeleton

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 The Origin of Tetrapods
• Some species probably used their
stout fins to help them move across
logs or the muddy bottom
• Thus, the tetrapod body plan did not
evolve “out of nowhere” but was
simply a modification of a pre-existing
body plan.
• recent discovery of a fossil known as
Tiktaalik has provided new details on
how this process occurred
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 The Origin of Tetrapods
• Like a fish, these species had fins,
gills, and lungs, and its body was
covered in scales.
• Unlike a fish, Tiktaalik had a full set of
ribs that would have helped it breathe
air and support its body.
• Tiktaalik had a neck and shoulders,
allowing it to move its head about
unlike fishes.

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 The Origin of Tetrapods
• bones of Tiktaalik’s front fin have
the same basic pattern found in all
limbed animals
• Although it is unlikely that Tiktaalik
could walk on land, its front fin
skeleton suggests that it could
prop itself up in water on its fins.

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 The Origin of Tetrapods
“Fishapod”: Tiktaalik.

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 The Origin of Tetrapods

Figure 34.21 Steps in the origin of limbs with digits.

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 The Tetrapods
Amniotes
• are tetrapods that have a terrestrially
adapted egg
• Amniotes are a group of tetrapods
whose living members are the
reptiles, including birds, and
mammals
• During their evolution, amniotes
acquired a number of new
adaptations to life on land.

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 The Tetrapods
Amphibian
• The amphibians (class Amphibia) are
represented today by about 6,150
species of
 salamanders(Order Urodela, “tailed
ones”)
 frogs (Order Anura, “tail-less ones”)
 caecilians (Order Apoda, “legless
ones”).
• About 550 species of urodeles are
known.
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 The Tetrapods
Amphibian
• Most salamanders that live on land
walk with a side-to-side bending of the
body
• Paedomorphosis is common among
aquatic salamanders; the axolotl, for
instance, retains larval features even
when it is sexually mature

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350 mya frogs
Characteristics salamanders
toads
body structure
legs (tetrapods)
lung

moist skin
buccal
body function cavity
lungs (positive pressure) &
diffusion through skin for gas exchange
glottis

Vertebrates: Amphibian
three-chambered heart
closed

Double loop circulatory system; veins from

lungs back to heart, from heart to rest of
body
ectotherms
reproduction
external fertilization
external development in aquatic egg
metamorphosis (tadpole to adult)
 The Tetrapods
Amniotes
•are tetrapods that have a terrestrially adapted
egg
• Amniotes are a group of tetrapods whose living
members are the reptiles, including birds, and
mammals(Figure 34.25)
•During their evolution, amniotes acquired a
number of new adaptations to life on land.

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Figure 34.25 A phylogeny of amniotes. Extant groups are named at the tips of the branches in boldface
type. The dotted line of the turtle branch indicates the uncertain relationship of turtles to other reptiles.
Turtles may be a sister group to parareptiles (as indicated by some morphological data), or they may
be diapsids more closely related to lepidosaurs (as indicated by other morphological analyses) or to
archosaurs (as indicated by many molecular studies).

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Derived Characters of Amniotes

• Amniotes are named for the major

derived character of the clade, the
amniotic egg, which contains four
specialized membranes:
– amnion
– chorion
– yolk sac
– allantois

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Derived Characters of Amniotes

• The amniotic eggs of most reptiles

and some mammals have a shell.
• Amniotes have acquired other key
adaptations to life on land.
 An example is amniotes use their
rib cage to ventilate their lungs.

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Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Benjamin Cummings
 The Tetrapods
Reptiles
• The reptile clade includes tuataras, lizards,
snakes, turtles, crocodilians, and birds, along
with a number of extinct groups, such as
plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs
• Fossil evidence indicates that the earliest
reptiles lived about 310MYA and resembled
lizards.
• Reptiles have diverged greatly since that time,
but as a group they share several derived
characters that distinguish them from other
tetrapods.
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 The Tetrapods

Figure 34.28 Hatching reptiles. These bushmaster snakes

(Lachesis muta) are breaking out of their parchment-like
shells, a common type of shell among living reptiles other
than birds.
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 The Tetrapods
Reptiles
• Distinct derived characters of the reptiles:
– reptiles have scales that contain the
protein keratin
– Reptiles are ectothermic, which means
that they absorb external heat as their
main source of body heat, however the
reptile clade is not entirely ectothermic;
birds are endothermic, capable of
maintaining body temperature through
metabolic activity.
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The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles

• As reptiles diverged from their lizard-

like ancestors, one of the first major
groups to emerge were:
 the parareptiles
 mostly large, stocky, quadrupedal
herbivores
 Some parareptiles had plates on
their skin that may have provided
them with defense against predators.

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The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles

• Parareptiles died out by about

200MYA, at the end of the
Triassic period.
• As parareptiles were dwindling,
another ancient clade of
reptiles, the diapsids, was
diversifying.

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The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles

• Derived characters of the diapsids:

a pair of holes on each side of the
skull, behind the eye socket
muscles pass through these holes
and attach to the jaw, controlling
jaw movement

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 The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles
• two lineages of the diapsids:
 Lepidosaurs, which include tuataras,
lizards, and snakes
 This lineage also produced a number
of marine reptiles, including the giant
mososaurs.
 Some of these marine species rivaled
today’s whales in length; all of them
are extinct
 Archosaurs, produced the crocodilians,
pterosaurs, and dinosaurs

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The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles

• Pterosaurs
 originated in the late Triassic,
 were the first tetrapods to exhibit flapping
flight
 The pterosaur wing was completely
different from the wings of birds and bats.
 It consisted of a collagen-strengthened
membrane that stretched between the
trunk or hind leg and a very long digit on
the foreleg.

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 The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles

• Well-preserved fossils show

evidence of muscles, blood vessels,
and nerves in the wing membranes,
suggesting that pterosaurs could
dynamically adjust their membranes
to assist their flight.
• end of the Cretaceous period 65MYA
 pterosaurs had become extinct

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 The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles

• On land
 the dinosaurs diversified into a
vast range of shapes and sizes,
from bipeds the size of a pigeon
to 45-m-long quadrupeds with
necks long enough to let them
browse the tops of trees

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 The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles
Three lineages of dinosaurs:
•Ornithischians, were herbivores; they
included many species with elaborate defenses
against predators, such as tail clubs and horned
crests.
•Saurischians, included the long-necked
giants and
•Theropods, which were bipedal carnivores.
Theropods included the famous Tyrannosaurus
rex as well as the ancestors of birds.

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 The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles
Lepidosaurs
–surviving lineage of lepidosaurs
• represented by two species of lizard-
like reptiles known as tuataras
• Fossil evidence indicates that tuatara
ancestors lived at least 220 MYA.
• These organisms thrived on many
continents well into the Cretaceous
period, reaching up to a meter in
length.
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 The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles
• Today,tuataras are found only on 30
islands off the coast of New Zealand.
• When humans arrived in New Zealand
750 years ago, the rats that
accompanied them devoured the
tuatara eggs eventually eliminating the
reptiles on the main islands.
• The tuataras that remained on the
outlying islands are about 50 cm long
and feed on insects, small lizards, and
bird eggs and chicks.
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The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles

• Tuataras can live to be over 100 years

old.
• The other major living lineage of
lepidosaurs consists of the lizards and
snakes, or squamates, which number
about 7,900 species.

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The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles

• Lizards are the most numerous and

diverse reptiles alive today.
• Snakes are legless lepidosaurs that
descended from lizards.
• Today, some species of snakes
retain vestigial pelvic and limb
bones, providing evidence of their
ancestry.

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The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles

A tuatara of New Zealand

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The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles

A tuatara of New Zealand

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The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles
Turtles
• Turtles are one of the most distinctive
group of reptiles alive today.
• All turtles have a boxlike shell made of
upper and lower shields that are fused
to the vertebrae, clavicles
(collarbones), and ribs.
• Most of the 307 known species of
turtles have a hard shell, providing
excellent defense against predators.
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Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Benjamin Cummings
 The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles

Alligators and Crocodiles

• collectively known as crocodilians
• belong to a lineage that reaches back
to the late Triassic period
• earliest members of this lineage
were small terrestrial quadrupeds
with long, slender legs

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The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles

Alligators and Crocodiles

• Later species became larger and adapted
to aquatic habitats
• breath air through their upturned nostrils
• Some Mesozoic crocodilians
 grew as long as 12 m and may have
attacked dinosaurs and other prey at
the water’s edge.
• The 23 known species of living
crocodilians are confined to warm regions
of the globe.
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Copyright © 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Benjamin Cummings
Figure 34.29 Extant reptiles (other than birds).
250 mya dinosaurs, turtles
Vertebrates: Reptiles lizards, snakes
alligators, crocodile

• Characteristics
– body structure
• dry skin, scales, armor
– body function
• lungs for gas exchange
• thoracic breathing; negative pressure
• most have a three-chambered heart
• ectotherms leathery
embryo
– reproduction shell
amnion
• internal fertilization
• external development in
amniotic egg

chorion
allantois
yolk sac
 The Origin and Evolutionary Radiation of
Reptiles

Birds
• There are about 10,000 species of
birds in the world.
• Like crocodilians, birds are
archosaurs, but almost every
feature of their anatomy has been
modified in their adaptation to flight.

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Fig. 34-28

Finger 1

(b) Bone structure

Palm
(a) Wing
Finger 2

Forearm Finger 3
Wrist
Shaft
Shaft
Barb
Vane
Barbule
Hooklet
(c) Feather structure

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 Derived Characters of Birds

• Many of the characters of birds

are adaptations that facilitate
flight, including weight-saving
modifications that make flying
more efficient.
• Birds lack a urinary bladder, and
the females of most species have
only one ovary.

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 Derived Characters of Birds
• The gonads of both females and
males are usually small, except
during the breeding season, when
they increase in size.
• Living birds are also toothless, an
adaptation that trims the weight of
the head.
• A bird’s most obvious adaptations
for flight are its wings and feathers

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 The Origin of Birds
• Cladistic analyses of birds and reptilian
fossils
 indicate that birds belong to the
theropods
• late 1990s
 Chinese paleontologists have unearthed
a spectacular trove of feathered
theropod fossils that are shedding light
on the origin of birds
• Several species of dinosaurs closely
related to birds had feathers and a wider
range of species had filamentous feathers.
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 The Origin of Birds
• By 150 MYA
 feathered theropods had evolved into
birds
 Archaeopteryx, which was discovered in
a German limestone quarry in 1861,
remains the earliest known bird (Figure
34.31).
• Clear evidence of Neornithes, the clade that
includes the 28 orders of living birds, can be
found before the Cretaceous-Paleogene
boundary 65.5MYA.

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Figure 34.31 Artist’s reconstruction of Archaeopteryx, the
earliest known bird. Fossil evidence indicates that Archaeopteryx
was capable of powered flight but retained many characters of
non-bird dinosaurs.
Archaeopteryx fossil
 Living Birds
• Clear evidence of Neornithes
 the clade that includes the 28 orders of
living birds, can be found before the
Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary
65.5MYA
• Several groups of living and extinct birds
include one or more flightless species.
• The ratites (order Struthioniformes), which
consist of the ostrich, rhea, kiwi,
cassowary, and emu, are all flightless
(Figure 34.32).

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Figure 34.32 An emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae), a
flightless bird native to Australia.
Figure 34.33 A king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus) “flying”
underwater. With their streamlined shape and powerful
pectoral muscles, penguins are fast and agile swimmers
Figure 34.34 Hummingbird feeding while hovering. A
hummingbird can rotate its wings in all directions, enabling
it to hover and fly backwards.
150 mya finches, hawk
Vertebrates: Birds (Aves) ostrich, turkey

• Characteristics
– body structure
• feathers & wings
• thin, hollow bone;
flight skeleton
– body function
• very efficient lungs & air sacs
• four-chambered heart
• endotherms
– reproduction
trachea lung
• internal fertilization
• external development in anterior
amniotic egg air sacs

posterior
air sacs
 Derived Characters of Mammals:
• Presence of mammary glands
 a distinctive character of mammals
• presence of hair (fur) and a fat layer under the
skin help the body retain heat
• generally have a larger brain than other
vertebrates of equivalent size
• relatively long duration of parental care
• differentiated teeth

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 Derived Characters of Mammals:

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 Early Evolution of Mammals
• Mammals belong to a group of amniotes
known as synapsids.
• Early non-mammalian synapsids lacked hair,
and laid eggs.
• temporal fenestra
 distinctive characteristic of synapsids
• Permian period
• Synapsids evolved into large herbivores
and carnivores and for a time they were
the dominant tetrapods.

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 Early Evolution of Mammals

• Permian-Triassic extinctions
 heavy toll on the synapsids
• Triassic Period(251-200MYA)
 synapsid diversity fell
• End of the Triassic Period
• mammal-like synapsids emerged
While not true mammals, these
synapsids had acquired a number of
the derived characters that
distinguish mammals from other
amniotes.
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 Early Evolution of Mammals
• Jurassic (200–145MYA)
 the first true mammals arose and diversified
into many short-lived lineages
• Jurassic and Cretaceous periods
 A diverse set of mammal species which
measured less than 1m coexisted with
dinosaurs
• early Cretaceous Period, the three major
lineages of mammals had emerged:
• – monotremes (egg-laying mammals)
• –marsupials (mammals with a pouch)
• –eutherians (placental mammals)
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 Early Evolution of Mammals

• late Cretaceous period

 extinction of large dinosaurs, pterosaurs
and marine reptiles
 Mammals underwent an adaptive
radiation, giving rise to large predators
and herbivores as well as flying and
aquatic species.

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 Early Evolution of Mammals

Figure 34.38 Short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), an

Australian monotreme. Monotremes have hair and produce milk, but they
lack nipples. Monotremes are the only mammals that lay eggs (inset).

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 Early Evolution of Mammals
• Monotremes(egg-laying mammals)
 found only in Australia and New Guinea
 represented by one species of platypus
and four species of echidnas (spiny
anteaters)
 lay eggs, a character that is ancestral for
amniotes and retained in most reptiles
 have hair and produce milk, but they lack
nipples
 Milk is secreted by glands on the belly of
the mother.
 After hatching, the baby sucks the milk
from the mother’s fur.
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 Early Evolution of Mammals
• Marsupials(mammals with pouch)
include opossums, kangaroos and koalas
Both marsupials and eutherians share derived
characters not found among monotremes.
They give birth to live young.
The embryo develops inside the uterus of the
female’s reproductive tract.
Placenta
 lining of the uterus and the extra embryonic
membranes that arise from the embryo
a structure in which nutrients diffuse into the
embryo from the mother’s blood
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 Early Evolution of Mammals

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 Early Evolution of Mammals
• A marsupial is born very early in its
development and completes its embryonic
development while nursing.
• In most species, the nursing young are held
within a maternal pouch known as marsupium.
• A red kangaroo is about the size of a
honeybee at its birth, just 33 days after
fertilization.
• Its back legs are merely buds, but its front legs
are strong enough for it to crawl from the exit
of its mother’s reproductive tract to a pouch
that opens to the front of her body, a journey
that lasts a few minutes.
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Growth and development of a tammar wallaby(Macropus eugenii) pouch young
during lactation
 Early Evolution of Mammals
Mesozoic era
• Marsupials existed worldwide, however, are
found in Australia and North and South
America today.
• After the breakup of the supercontinent
Pangaea, South America and Australia became
island continents, and their marsupials
diversified in isolation from the eutherians that
began an adaptive radiation on the northern
continents.
• Cenozoic era (about 65MYA)
 Australia has not been in contact with another
continent
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 Early Evolution of Mammals
• Australia
 convergent evolution has resulted in a
diversity of marsupials that resemble
eutherians in similar ecological roles in
other parts of the world
• South america
 diverse marsupial fauna throughout the
Paleogene
 it has experienced several immigrations of
eutherians

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 Early Evolution of Mammals

• about 3 MYA
 North and South America joined at the
Panamanian isthmus and extensive two-
way traffic of animals took place over the
land bridge
• Today, only three families of marsupials
live outside the Australian region
• only marsupials found in the wild in North
America are a few species of opossum

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 Early Evolution of Mammals
• Eutherians (Placental Mammals)
• commonly known as placental mammals
because their placentas are more complex
• have a longer pregnancy period than marsupials
• Young eutherians complete their embryonic
development within the uterus, joined to their
mother by the placenta.
• eutherian placenta provides an intimate and
long-lasting association between the mother and
her developing young

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 Early Evolution of Mammals
• Molecular data suggest that diversification
occurred about 100MYA
• morphological data suggest it was about
60MYA

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 Early Evolution of Mammals

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 Early Evolution of Mammals

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 Early Evolution of Mammals

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Mammals
• Sub-groups
– monotremes
• egg-laying mammals
• lack placenta & true nipples
• duckbilled platypus, echidna
– marsupials
• pouched mammals
– offspring feed from nipples in pouch
• short-lived placenta
• koala, kangaroo, opossum
– placental
• true placenta
– nutrient & waste filter
• shrews, bats, whales, humans
220 mya / 65 mya mice, ferret
elephants, bats
Vertebrates: Mammals whales, humans

• Characteristics
– body structure
muscles
• hair contract
• specialized teeth
– body function
diaphragm
• lungs, diaphragm; negative pressure contracts
• four-chambered heart; oxygenated blood
separated from deoxygenated blood
• endotherms
– reproduction
• internal fertilization
• internal development in uterus
– nourishment through placenta
• birth live young
• mammary glands make milk
End of the lecture