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Hemichordates ("half chordates") have some features similar to those of chordates: branchial openings that open into the pharynx and look rather like gill slits; stomochords, similar in composition to notochords, but running in a circle round the "collar", which is ahead of the mouth; and a dorsal nerve cord—but also a smaller ventral nerve cord.
The five synapomorphies are pharyngeal slits, a dorsal nerve cord, notochord, endostyle, and the post-anal-tail which is depicted and labeled well on the chordates page. This image is helpful to visualize the regions where the five synapomorphies existed in chordates and what they looked like.
As their habitats are mostly defined by ocean currents, [1] many species have a cosmopolitan distribution, with some like Oikopleura dioica being found in all of the world's oceans. [27] Larvaceans have been reported as far as the Southern Ocean , where they are estimated to comprise 10.5 million tonnes of wet biomass.
A tunicate is an exclusively marine invertebrate animal, a member of the subphylum Tunicata (/ ˌ tj uː n ɪ ˈ k eɪ t ə / TEW-nih-KAY-tə).This grouping is part of the Chordata, a phylum which includes all animals with dorsal nerve cords and notochords (including vertebrates).
The lancelets (/ ˈ l æ n s l ɪ t s, ˈ l ɑː n-/ LA(H)N-slits), also known as amphioxi (sg.: amphioxus / ˌ æ m f i ˈ ɒ k s ə s / AM-fee-OK-səs), consist of 32 described species of "fish-like" benthic filter feeding chordates [9] in the subphylum Cephalochordata, class Leptocardii, and family Branchiostomatidae.
A hollow neural tube exists among some species (at least in early life), probably a primitive trait that they share with the common ancestor of chordata and the rest of the deuterostomes. [8] Hemichordates have a nerve net and longitudinal nerves, but no brain. [9] [10] Some species biomineralize in calcium carbonate. [11]
Branchiostoma belcheri exhibit all basic characteristics of the Chordata phylum including the notochord, dorsal nerve cord, pharynx, buccal cavity, cirri, tail, dorsal fin, nerve cord, segmented muscle, and ocelli. Starting with the internal structure, said organisms have true coeloms where the critical organs develop.
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.