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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.
Vertebrates share these characteristics with other chordates. [4] Vertebrates are distinguished from all other animals, including other chordates, by multiple synapomorphies, namely the vertebral column; skull of bone or cartilage, large brain divided into 3 or more sections, a muscular heart with multiple chambers; an inner ear with ...
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.
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 ...
This, combined with an apparent lack of vertebral elements within the Myxini, suggested that the Myxini were descended from a more ancient lineage than the vertebrates, and that the skull developed before the vertebral column. The clade was thus composed of the Myxini and the vertebrates, and any extinct chordates with skulls.
Popularly but falsely [6] attributed as an ancestor of all vertebrates, [7] or the oldest fish, [8] or the oldest ancestor of humans, [9] [10] it is generally viewed as a basal chordate alongside other Cambrian chordates; it is a close relative of vertebrate ancestors [11] [12] but it is not an ancestor itself. [2] [13]
As a subphylum of chordates, all vertebrates have evolved a vertebral column (backbone) based around the embryonic notochord (which becomes the intervertebral discs), forming the core structural support of an internal skeleton, and also serves to enclose and protect the spinal cord.
The differences in timing and mechanisms across the vertebrate clades are completely unknown. [citation needed] The evolution of the axial twist is an open question. The founders of the axial twist idea (de Lussanet & Osse, and Kinsbourne) agree that the axial twist is universal in vertebrates and probably is a feature of all chordates.