Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Invertebrates cells fire in response to similar stimuli as mammals, such as tissue trauma, high temperature, or changes in pH. The first invertebrate in which a neuron cell was identified was the medicinal leech, Hirudo medicinalis. [14] [15] Learning and memory using nociceptors have been described in the sea hare, Aplysia.
Marine invertebrates are invertebrate animals that live in marine habitats, and make up most of the macroscopic life in the oceans. It is a polyphyletic blanket term that contains all marine animals except the marine vertebrates , including the non- vertebrate members of the phylum Chordata such as lancelets , sea squirts and salps .
Vertebrates (/ ˈ v ɜːr t ə b r ɪ t s,-ˌ b r eɪ t s /) [3] are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebrata with some 65,000 species, by far the largest ...
The vertebrates share one body plan, while invertebrates have many. This term, usually applied to animals, envisages a "blueprint" encompassing aspects such as symmetry, layers, segmentation, nerve, limb, and gut disposition. Evolutionary developmental biology seeks to explain the origins of diverse body plans.
Invertebrate paleontology - the study of fossil invertebrates These divisions are sometimes further divided into more specific specialties. For example, within arachnology, acarology is the study of mites and ticks ; within entomology, lepidoptery is the study of butterflies and moths , myrmecology is the study of ants and so on.
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.
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.
Marine vertebrates also have a far more centralized nervous system than marine invertebrates, with most of the higher functions cephalized and monopolized by the brain; and most of them have evolved myelinated central and peripheral nerve system, which increases conduction speeds significantly.