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A chordate (/ ˈ k ɔːr d eɪ t / KOR-dayt) is a deuterostomal bilaterian animal belonging to the phylum Chordata (/ k ɔːr ˈ d eɪ t ə / kor-DAY-tə).All chordates possess, at some point during their larval or adult stages, five distinctive physical characteristics (synapomorphies) that distinguish them from other taxa.
Idealised vertebrate body plan, showing key characteristics. Vertebrates (and other chordates) belong to the Bilateria, a group of animals with mirror symmetrical bodies. [6] They move, typically by swimming, using muscles along the back, supported by a strong but flexible skeletal structure, the spine or vertebral column.
The Cambrian chordates are an extinct group of animals belonging to the phylum Chordata that lived during the Cambrian, between 538 and 485 million years ago. The first Cambrian chordate known is Pikaia gracilens , a lancelet -like animal from the Burgess Shale in British Columbia , Canada.
On the other hand, fossils of early chordates are very rare, as non-vertebrate chordates have no bone tissue or teeth, and fossils of no Post-Cambrian non-vertebrate chordates are known aside from the Permian-aged Paleobranchiostoma, trace fossils of the Ordovician colonial tunicate Catellocaula, and various Jurassic-aged and Tertiary-aged ...
Segmentation in animals typically falls into three types, characteristic of different arthropods, vertebrates, and annelids. Arthropods such as the fruit fly form segments from a field of equivalent cells based on transcription factor gradients. Vertebrates like the zebrafish use oscillating gene expression to define segments known as somites.
The notochord is the defining feature (synapomorphy) of chordates, and was present throughout life in many of the earliest chordates. Although the stomochord of hemichordates was once thought to be homologous or from a common lineal origin, it is now viewed as analogous, convergent , or from a different lineal origin. [ 22 ]
Balanoglossus, an example of a Hemichordata, represents an "evolutionary link" between invertebrates and vertebrates. In addition to the simple observation that the dorsoventral axes of protostomes and chordates appear to be inverted with respect to each other, molecular biology provides some support for the inversion hypothesis.
A true endoskeleton is derived from mesodermal tissue. In three phyla of animals, Chordata, Echinodermata and Porifera (), endoskeletons of various complexity are found.An endoskeleton may function purely for structural support (as in the case of Porifera), but often also serves as an attachment site for muscles and a mechanism for transmitting muscular forces as in chordates and echinoderms ...