Phylum chordata

Salient features
• Presence of Notochord
• Presence of dorsal nerve cord
• Presence of pharyngeal gill slits
• A post Anal tail
• Chorda = strin( 55000 sp and 25000 extinct )
• Habitat- aquatic, aerial, terrestrial.
• Body symmetry- bilaterally symmetry, triploblastic, coelomate, segmented body
• The body has an organ system level of organization
• Skeletal system- endoskeleton
- exoskeleton
• Digestive system – complete with digestive gland
• Blood vascular system- closed type
• Excretory organs – kidney – pronephric, mesonephric, metanephric
• Blood- rbcs, - heart ventral
• Unisexual( sexual dimorphism)- sexual reproduction takes place
• Nervous system – well developed
• Development- direct
• Presence of hepatic portal system – chordata animals
• They are cold blooded (poikilotherm)- fish, reptiles, amphibians
- Warm blooded(homeotherm)-mammal, aves
 Phylum chrodata

Acraniata Craniata
Protochordata

Urochordata
cephalochordata

agnatha gnathostomata
 group

Acrania Crania

Sub phyllum

chephalochordata Hemichordata
Urochordata
amphioxus balanoglossus
class

larvacea ascidiacea Thallacea

Oikopleura Herdmania Pyrosoma

 Hemichordata
• Habitat : marine
• Body form: bilateral symmetry and divided into
proboscis, collar and trunk
• Coelom:enterocoelus
• Stomochord: hollow outgrowth from buccal
cavity called buccal diverticulum
• Digestive tract complete
• Respiration through branchial portion of pharynx
• Open blood vascular system
• Primitive nervous sytem
• Sensory cells of epidermis act as sensory organs
• Reproduction: sexes are separate; external
fertilization
• Development is mostly indirect
 Hemichordata

Pterobranchia planctosphaeriodea Graptolita

enteropneusta
1. Commonly called as 1. seadantary, solitary, This class is represented These are
acorn or tongue worms colonial, tubiculous by a few small rounded extinct colonial
2. Solitary and burrowing marine transparent and pelagic hemichordates
worm like 2. 2. proboscis with larvae.
3. Body consist of ciliated tentacles to Alimentary canal is u
proboscis, collar amd trunk produce ciliary feeding shaped
4. Sexes separate currents of water The adult form is yet
5. Development with or 3. One pair of gill slits; unknown
without tarnaria larva never u shaped
Numerous pair of u shaped 4. Sexes separate
gills

Cephalodiscidea rhabdopleurida
Chephalodiscus Rhapdopleura
• Protochordates larva’s has important features which is similr to
chordate features.
• Larva of these animals help in studying the evolution of chordate as
they have certain advanced characteristics which are more similar to
chordate
• Tadpole larva- body oval and two
parts- head and tail
• head: 0.3mm. Three adhesive
papillae that help in attachment
• Tail part contains 1. Notochord
2. Nerve chord
3. Muscles
• Statocyst is the sense organ
• Pharynx contains few gill slits
• Muscular heart ventrally present
• Retrogressive metamorphosis
• Notochord and nerve chord
present only in the larval tail
Metamorphosis of tarnaria larva
• Tornaria larva was first described by J Muller in 1850 who is suspected it
to be the larva of some starfish. Later on it was known to belong to
Balanoglossus clavigerus.
• 3mm body – clear, glossy
• Central mouth near equaitaorial plane
• Two ciliary bands over body surface- anterior and posterior
• Anterior band are short and collect food. Posterior band occurs as a ring
in front of anus.
• Ciliary organ eyes are cup shaped, cavity of cup is filled with clear
material constituting the lens.
metamorphosis
• Larva swims freely, leads a planktonic life, feeding on minute
organisms and metamorphosis into an adult worm.
• During metamorphosis, size is reduced probably due to loss of water.
• Transparency, ciliary bands, sensory cilia and eye spots are lost. Body
becomes differentiated into Proboscis, collar and trunk, by the
appearance of two constrictions and trunk region is elongated .
• Reproductive organs developed from mesoderm. Tongue bars grow
• Adhesive post anal tail formed.
• Animal sinks to bottom to lead a benthonic life as an adult
Metamorphosis of ascidian larva
• Retrogressive metamorphosis
• Free swimming larva
• Photopositive and geonegative at first
• Layer of test is present on the surface therefore feeding is not donefor
3-4 hrs because branchial aperture is covered.
• Larva has advanced chordate characters
• Adheres to substrate before • Progressive changes
metamorphosis. • Ectodermal ampulla replaces adhesive
papilla
• No tail in herdmania therefore, • Neural gland and nerve ganglion
long tail of larva will disappear • Test disappears from mouth
through phagocytosis. • Pharynx enlarged
• Caudal muscles, nerve chord, • Alimentary canal enlarged
notochord disappear • Artrial cavity enlarged
• Adhesive papilla disappears. • Heart fully developed with pericardium
• Gonoducts/gonads are present –
• Sense organs disappear such as mesodermal celles develops into gonads
sensory vesicle, otocyst, ocelii • Test become very tough and hard
Origin of Chordata
• Palaezoic era; Cambrian period evolution and Ordovician period chord
• earlier Chordate ancestors were all soft bodied forms, they left no
fossil remains
• evolved from some freshwater forms as Chamberlain (1900) pointed
out that all modern chordates possess glomerular kidneys that are
designed to remove excess water from body.
• Chordates evolved from some deuterostome ancestor (echinoderms,
hemichordates, pogonophorans etc.)
• Fossils of the earliest vertebrates are known from the Silurian-
Devonian period, about 400 million years ago
Theories
• The Echinoderm theory
• Hemichordate theory
• Urochordata
• Cephalochordata
• These 4 theories together are called as Barringstones hypothesis.
• The term dipleurula was coined by Semon (1888) Echinoderm
• Majority of echinoderms have indirect development with
free swimming and bilaterally symmetrical larval stages.
These echinoderms have small eggs and the fertilized
Theory
eggs develop in seawater.
• The cleavage is holoblastic, nearly equal, radial and
intermediate to form a hollow one layered ciliated
blastula. The blastula transforms into a gastrula by
invagination.
• The cilia of the gastrula are restricted to (i)a large pre oral
band present around the mouth on the ventral side and
(ii)a small adoral band lining the mouth or stomodeum.
• This larval stage is called Dipleurula larva..Dipleurula
represents an ancestral form for the the primitive
deuterostomes. We can see that all well known forms of
larvae of echinodermata are derived from the
hypothetical dipleurula. Among them fall the Bipinnaria
and the Brachiolaria of the sea stars, the Auricularia of
the sea rollers and the plutei of the sea hedgehog etc.
• The Dipleurula concept was propounded by Bather in
1900. The common ancestors didn’t possess all the
common characters of the free-swimming bilateral larvae
of different groups of echinoderms and it might add one
or two characters which none of them possess.
Echinoderm theory
• The theory was given by Johannes Muller (1860) and is based on the
comparative studies of larval stages of echinoderms and hemichordates
• Johannes Muller, W. Garstang and DeBeers proposed that echinoderm
larvae gave rise to chordates by neoteny
• Paedomorphism is a type of heterochrony that results in the retention
of traits by an adult that were previously seen in the young. Neoteny
and paedogenesis are two ways that promote paedomorphism in an
organism. Neoteny is the process of delaying the physiological
development of an organism, while paedogenesis describes the
reproduction by an organism that has not achieved physical maturity.
• Embryological Evidence: Tornaria larva of hemichordates resembles
echinoderm larvae such as Dipleurula.
• like chordates, echinoderms are also deuterostomes and possess
mesodermal skeletal elements
• The discovery of fossil echinoderms called Calcichordata from Ordovician
period (450 mya) further confirms echinoderm ancestry of chordates
• Calcichordates are asymmetrical animals which demonstrate affinities
with both echinoderms and chordates but their skeleton is made of
CaCO3, whereas in vertebrates, the bones are made of hydrated Ca and
phosphate.
• • They had large pharynx with a
.series of gill slits, each covered with
flaps for filter feeding, a small
segmented body and a postanal tail
• • . A perforated pharynx for filter
feeding appears to have evolved in
diverse groups of animals during the
CambrianOrodovician periods when
planktons were abundant in water.

• Serological Evidence: A close

similarity between the proteins of
the body fluid of chordata and
echinoderms. Hence the chordates
are more related to echinoderms.
• The radial symmetry of adult echinoderms will disapproved the
relationship with the bilaterally symmetrical chordates.
• The bilateria is divided into two major divisions- Prostomia and
Deuterostomia.
• The division is based on the differences in embryonic and larval
development.
• Prostomia includes from Annelida to Arthropoda while Deuterostomia
includes Echinodermata,Pogonophora and Chordates.
Deuterostome line of Chordate Evolution:

Following common features of Deuterostome suggests strong evidence of a

closer evolutionary relationship between the three principal Deuterostome
phyla- Echinodermata, Hemichordata and Chordata.
(i) Early cleavage of zygote is indeterminate.
(ii) Blastopore of gastrula develops into anus.
(iii) Coelom ( enterocoelous except vertebrates) is formed by the fusion of
pockets developed from the endoderm of developing archenteron of the
embryo.
(iv) Pelagic larva of Echinoderms and Hemichordates have a close
resemblance vertebrate does not have a floating larva.
(v) Deuterostomes use creatinine as phosphogen whereas invertebrates use
arginine. Some Hemichordates as well as echinoids use both.
Hemichordate Origin
• Romer (1959) suggested that ancestral deuterostomes were sedentary tentacle
feeders whose mucous-laden ciliated tentacles served to trap planktons as they
were waved in water as do the modern lophophorates and Pterobranch
hemichordates, Cephalodiscus and Rhabdopleura.
• By some mutation pharyngeal gill slits evolved in these ancestors, which made
the pharynx sieve-like to trap planktons as the water current passed through it.
• Extant pterobranchs possess both ciliated arms and pharyngeal gill slits. Tornaria
larva of hemichordates shows phylogenetic relationship with echinoderm larvae
and hemichordates also show affinities with chordates.
• the presence of a true notochord is doubtful and their adult body plan is quite
different from vertebrates. Therefore, the prospect of some hemichordates as a
likely ancestor of vertebrates seems to be impossible.
Urochordate Origin
• W. Garstang (1928) and N.J. Berrill (1955) gave importance to the tadpole-like larva
of urochordates which carries typical chordate characters, namely, a notochord in
tail along with segmented myotomes, dorsal hollow nerve cord, sense organs and
pharyngeal gill slits.
• Garstang (1928) suggested that chordates evolved from some sessile filter feeding
urochordate by the larval stage evolving into adult by neoteny and by losing the
sedentary adult stage.
• According to this theory, some of these larva failed to metamorphose into adults,
but became neotenous and later evolved into the cephalochordates and vertebrates.
• The sessile nature of the primitive chordate ancestry, hemichordates, primitive
pterobranch and echinoderms is considered by the workers resulting from common
ancestry.
• However, the Ascidian
theory of Chordate
origin does not seem
to be perfect. The
principal drawback is
that the theory
considers sessile
urochordate to be
ancestral to
chordates. Whereas,
they are highly
specialised because
sessility is a
specialised condition
wherever it occurs in
the Animal kingdom.
Cephalochordate Origin
• Chamberlain (1900) studied the primitive and advanced characters of
cephalochordates and proposed that while extant cephalochordates possess all
chordate characters in typical state, they also show some primitive features of non-
chordates, such as, absence of heart, head, sense organs, respiratory pigment, filter-
feeding mode of food capture and excretion by solenocytes.
• Fossils of 60 specimens from mid-Cambrian of the earliest chordate, Pikaia gracilens
have been discovered from Burgess Shale in British Columbia, Canada.
• The Amphioxus-like fossils show streamlined, ribbon-shaped, 5 cm long body having
notochord in the posterior two-third of body and myomeres.
• It has a small head with two tentacles and gill slits in the neck region.
• Other chordatelike fossils are: Cathaymyrus from early Cambrian sediments in China
and Palaeobranchiostomata from early Permian from South Africa that appears to be
more similar to Amphioxus.
Combined Theory
• E.J.W. Barrington (1965) combined all the above theories and proposed that
the common ancestor of echinoderms and chordates was a sessile ciliary
arm feeder that lived in the plankton-rich environment of the Cambrian.
• Modern Crinoidea (Echinodermata), Pogonophora and Pterobranch
hemichordates evolved from a similar ancestor by retaining the original
feeding mode, perhaps because they continued to inhabit the same
environment as in ancestral days.
• However, pharyngotomy (perforation of pharynx with gill slits)must have
evolved in a large number of groups at that time, which must have been
much more superior method of food gathering by filtering water through
pharynx as compared to ciliated arm feeding.
• Hence, the sedentary Protoascidians of
that time lost ciliated arm feeding and
adopted pharyngeal filter feeding as the
only method of food gathering.
• Sometime later, when the plankton
population in water declined, free-
swimming tailed larva of these
urochordates did not metamorphose
and became a neotenic adult, since free-
swimming mode was superior in food
searching at a time of food scarcity
• Cephalochordate-like ancestors evolved
by perfection and expansion of chordate
characters that were already present in
the ascidian tadpole larva. We already
have fossils of such primitive chordates,
e.g. Pikaia gracilens from midCambrian.
Coelentrate theory of origin
• According to this theory chordates were developed from
coelenterates. Radial symmetry coelenteron,cnidoblasts etc, were 1st
and advanced characters were developed to give rise to chordates.
This theory infers that chordates might have acquired higher
characters independently. It is not correct and hence this theory is not
acceptable.
ANNELID THEORY - ORIGIN OF
CHORDATES:
This theory suggests that the chordates have evolved from an annelid stock. The annelids
show bilateral symmetry, mesmerism, head, lateral Coelome complete digestive tract,
closed circulatory system, hemoglobin, etc., like chordates.
The resemblance is enhanced if, an annelid is turned upside down(lamprey larva). But the
mouth would be dorsal which is unlike that of chordates.
Metamerism and appendages of annelids differ in nature from those of the chordates.
Bilateral symmetry, head and complete digestive tract also occur in other non-chordate
phyla.
Coelom is schizocoelic in annelids and enterocoelic in lower chordates. Haemoglobin is
dissolved in the plasma in annelids but it is present in the red blood corpuscles in chordates.
Annelid nerve cord is double, and, ventral in contrast to single, hollow, dorsal nerve cord of
chordates. Some striking differences exist between the annelids and the chordates in their
embryology. Hence it is difficult to accept this theory.