Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A chordate (/ ˈ k ɔːr d eɪ t / KOR-dayt) is a 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 .
The evolution of tetrapods began about 400 million years ago in the Devonian Period with the earliest tetrapods evolved from lobe-finned fishes. [1] Tetrapods (under the apomorphy-based definition used on this page) are categorized as animals in the biological superclass Tetrapoda, which includes all living and extinct amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.
This article contains a list of all of the classes and orders that are located in the Phylum Chordata. The subphyla Tunicata and Vertebrata are in the unranked Olfactores clade, while the subphylum Cephalochordata is not. Animals in Olfactores are characterized as having a more advanced olfactory system than animals not in it.
Sarcopterygii (/ ˌ s ɑːr k ɒ p t ə ˈ r ɪ dʒ i. aɪ /; from Ancient Greek σάρξ (sárx) ' flesh ' and πτέρυξ (ptérux) ' wing, fin ') — sometimes considered synonymous with Crossopterygii (from Ancient Greek κροσσός (krossós) ' fringe ') — is a clade (traditionally a class or subclass) of vertebrate animals which includes a group of bony fish commonly referred to as ...
Eotetrapodiformes is a clade of tetrapodomorphs including the four-limbed vertebrates ("tetrapods" in the traditional sense) and their closest finned relatives, two groups of stem tetrapods called tristichopterids and elpistostegalids.
The tetrapods evolved from the lobe-finned fishes about 395 million years ago in the Devonian. [23] The specific aquatic ancestors of the tetrapods, and the process by which land colonization occurred, remain unclear, and are areas of active research and debate among palaeontologists at present.
In effect, "tetrapod" is a name reserved solely for animals which lie among living tetrapods, so-called crown tetrapods. This is a node-based clade , a group with a common ancestry descended from a single "node" (the node being the nearest common ancestor of living species).
The presence of gill slits (in blue) in an acorn worm (left) and a tunicate (right). Pharyngeal slits are filter-feeding organs found among deuterostomes. Pharyngeal slits are repeated openings that appear along the pharynx caudal to the mouth. With this position, they allow for the movement of water in the mouth and out the pharyngeal slits.