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Evolution of fish to tetrapods. The basic body plan has been phylogenetically constrained. Most terrestrial vertebrates have a body plan that consist of four limbs. The phylogenetic inertia hypothesis suggests that this body plan is observed, not because it happens to be optimal, but because tetrapods are derived from a clade of fishes (Sarcopterygii) which also have four limbs.
In the most recent research, the three phyla Cycliophora, Entoprocta and Bryozoa makes up a single clade and are the first to branch off from the other lophotrochozoans. The second split is the molluscs, and the third consists of two sister phyla, annelids and nemerteans. Lastly remains the clade that consist of the phoronids and the brachiopods.
This classification quickly fell into disuse as some forms of backbones appear to have appeared more than once and different types are found in close relatives, sometimes even in the same animal, and already by the middle of the 20th century several of the small-bodied groups were suspected of being larval or neotenic forms. [72]
Molluscs are generally regarded members of the Lophotrochozoa, [28] a group defined by having trochophore larvae and, in the case of living Lophophorata, a feeding structure called a lophophore. The other members of the Lophotrochozoa are the annelid worms and seven marine phyla. [31] The diagram on the right summarizes a phylogeny presented in ...
Biological constraints are factors which make populations resistant to evolutionary change. One proposed definition of constraint is "A property of a trait that, although possibly adaptive in the environment in which it originally evolved, acts to place limits on the production of new phenotypic variants."
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.
Phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) use information on the historical relationships of lineages (phylogenies) to test evolutionary hypotheses.The comparative method has a long history in evolutionary biology; indeed, Charles Darwin used differences and similarities between species as a major source of evidence in The Origin of Species.
The analysis by Carl Woese resulted in the three-domain system, arguing for two major splits in the early evolution of life. The first split led to modern Bacteria and the subsequent split led to modern Archaea and Eukaryotes. [14] [15]