Chapter 7
Phylum Hemichordata
Phylum Chordata
Phylum Hemichordata
• Characteristics:
– Rare group, but these worms seem to span a gap
between invertebrates and more advanced
chordate animals
– Acorn worms share some features with chordates
including pharnyngeal gill slits and a nerve cord
that is similar to the chordate notochord
– Acorn worms are deposit or suspension feeders
and use proboscis for feeding
– Acorn worms have larvae that resemble those seen
in echinoderms
– 90 known species
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Phylum Cordata
(the inverts)
• Subphylum Urochordata - tunicates
• Subphylum Cephalochordata – lancelets
• Chordates have several common features that
•
are seen at least during some portion of the life.
Lancelets are the only chordates that possess all
the common features as adults.
Phylum Chordata
• Characteristics:
– Notochord – flexible support rod between
nerve cord and gut
– Tubular nerve cord
– Muscular pharynx (gut)
– Gill slits
– Post-Anal Tail
– Ventral heart
– Note: no backbone. In vertebrates, notochord
is surrounded or replaced by the vertebral
column.
Invertebrate Chordates
Tunicates – Subphylum Urochordata,
Class Ascidiacea
• Characteristics:
– Commonly called “sea squirts” because most filter feed via an
incurrent siphon and “squirt” water out an excurrent siphon
after the water has been filtered (Exception: Predatory tunicate)
– Larvae has chordate characteristics that are not seen in adultsonly pharynx remains
– Called tunicates because of thick outer covering called a tunic
– Larvae are free swimming after fertilization occurs in open
water- mass reproduction - see Fig. 7.51
– Adults normally live attached to boats, docks, reefs, or other
hard substrate
– All 3000 known species are marine
Tunicates
•A
A
B
Figure 7.51 A. Clavelina picta, colonial ascidian. B. tadpole larva of
ascidians exhibits all the distinguishing characteristics of chordates.
A
B
Figure 7.52 A. Cliona intestinalis, shallow water sea squirt. B. Adult tunicate
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Cephalochordata, the Lancelets
• Characteristics:
– 23 species
– Very small, only up to 3 inches long
– Live in shallow marine waters as filter feeders
– Body shows segmented muscle tissue
– Notochord attached to the muscles
– Gills are used to filter food, not in respiration
– Only invert chordate to possess all chordate
features as an adult
Phylum Chordata
Subphylum Cephalochordata, the Lancelets
Phylogenetic relationships of animal phyla
Characteristics of Major Animal
Phyla