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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.
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.
Another feature present in both the Hemichordata and Chordata is pharyngotremy — the presence of spiracles or gill slits into the pharynx, which is also found in some primitive fossil echinoderms . [17] [18] A hollow nerve cord is found in all chordates, including tunicates (in the larval stage). Some hemichordates also have a tubular nerve cord.
The Cambrian chordates are an extinct group of animals belonging to the phylum Chordata that lived during the Cambrian, between 538 and 485 million years ago. The first Cambrian chordate known is Pikaia gracilens , a lancelet -like animal from the Burgess Shale in British Columbia , Canada.
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 craniate is a member of the Craniata (sometimes called the Craniota), a proposed clade of chordate animals with a skull of hard bone or cartilage.Living representatives are the Myxini (hagfishes), Hyperoartia (including lampreys), and the much more numerous Gnathostomata (jawed vertebrates).
Appendicularia retains the ancestral chordate characteristics of having the pharyngeal spiracles and the anus open directly to the outside, and by the lack of the atrium and the atrial siphon found in related classes. The gonads are located in the posterior section of the trunk, beyond the digestive tract.
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]