Chordates

Chapter 30

30-1 The Chordates

What is a chordate? A chordate is an animal that has, for at least some stage of its life, a dorsal, hollow nerve cord; a notochord; pharyngeal pouches, and a tail that extends beyond the anus.

30-1 The Chordates

The hollow nerve cord runs along the dorsal part of the body. Nerves branch from this cord at regular intervals and connect to internal organs, muscles and sense organs.

30-1 The Chordates

Notochord is a long supporting rod that runs through the body just below the nerve cord. Most chordates have a notochord only when they are embryos.

30-1 The Chordates

Pharyngeal pouches are paired structures in the throat region. In some chordates—such as fishes and amphibians—slits develop that connect the pharyngeal pouches to the outside of the body.

30-1 The ChordatesThese slits may then develop into gills that

are used for gas exchange.At some point in their lives, all chordates

have a tail that extends beyond the anus. The tail can contain bone and muscle and is used in swimming by aquatic species.

30-1 The Chordates

Transverse section of a chick embryo of forty-five hours’ incubation.

30-1 Most Chordates are Vertebrates

More than 99% of all chordates are placed in the subphylum Vertebrata and are called vertebrates. A vertebrate is a chordate that has a strong supporting structure known as a vertebral column or backbone.

30-1 Most Chordates are Vertebrates

In vertebrates, the dorsal, hollow nerve cord is called the spinal cord. As a vertebrate embryo develops, the front end of the spinal cord grows into a brain. The backbone, which replaces the notochord in most developing vertebrates, is made of individual segments called vertebrae that enclose and protect the spinal cord.

30-1 Most Chordates are Vertebrates

A vertebrate’s backbone is part of an endoskeleton, or internal skeleton. Like an arthropod’s exoskeleton, a vertebrates, endoskeleton supports and protects the animal’s body and gives muscles a place to attach.

30-1 Most Chordates are Vertebrates

A vertebrate’s skeleton grows as the animal grows and does not need to be shed. A vertebrate’s skeleton is made of living cells as well as nonliving material.

30-1 Nonvertebrate Chordates

Tunicates are one of two groups of nonvertebrate chordates.

30-1 Nonvertebrate Chordates

Both are soft-bodied marine organisms. Like all chordates, these animals have a hollow nerve cord, a notochord, pharyngeal pouches and a tail.

30-1 Nonvertebrate Chordates

Fossil evidence from the Cambrian Period places this divergence at more than 550 million years ago.

30-1 Most Chordates are Vertebrates

The two groups of nonvertebrate chordates are tunicates and lancelets.

30-1 Nonvertebrate Chordates

Tunicates—Filter-feeding tunicate larva have all the chordate characteristics. Adult tunicates have no notochord or tail.

Mouth

Pharynx with gill silts

30-1 Nonvertebrate Chordates

Lancelets—small, fishlike creates. Live on sandy ocean bottoms. Adult has definite head with mouth. Closed circulatory system. No true heart.

Mouth

Pharynx with gill slits

30-2 Fishes

Fishes are aquatic vertebrates that are characterized by paired fins, scales, and gills.

30-2 Fishes

Fishes are so varied that for almost every general statement there is an exception. Fins are for movement, scales for protection, and gills for exchanging gases.

30-2 Evolution of Fish

The evolution of jaws and the evolution of paired fins were important developments during the rise of fishes.

Grouper

30-2 Geologic Timetable

The earth is estimated to be millions of years old. To help us understand the order in which life “evolved” we need to look at the Geologic Timetable. This timetable outlines the periods and major events that occurred during each. (your learning packet)

30-2 The first fish

The earliest fishes to appear in the fossil record were odd-looking jawless creatures whose bodies were armored with bony plates. They lived in the oceans during the Cambrian Period, about 510 million years ago.

30-2 The Age of Fishes

During the Ordovician and Silurian Periods, about 505 to 410 million years ago, fishes underwent a major adaptive radiation. The species emerged during the Devonian Period, which is often called the Age of Fishes.

30-2 Jawless and Paired Fins

Some ancient fishes kept their bony armor and had a deeding adaptation that changed everything. These fishes had jaws. Jaws are an extremely useful adaptation. Jawless fish were limited to small soft food that that they filtered from the water.

30-2 Jawless and Paired Fins

Jaws allowed fish to eat a much wider variety of foods. Their fins were attached to girdles—structures of cartilage or bones that supports the fins.

Cartilage is a strong tissue that supports the body and is softer and more flexible than bone.

Dunkeleosteus, large armored fish.

30-2 Jawless and Paired Fins

Paired fins gave fishes more control of their body movement. Tail fins and powerful muscles gave fishes greater thrust when swimming. This gave accuracy and speed. They had the ability to turn and use jaws in complex ways.

Dunkeleosteus, large armored fish.

30-2 Modern Fishesx

30-2 Modern Fishesx

30-2 Modern Fishes

Two groups:Modern sharks and rays—had an

evolved skeleton made of strong, resilient cartilage.

Bony fish—evolved skeletons—true bones. Lobe-finned fishes—had fleshy fins.

30-2 Modern Fishes

A fish must overcome inertia, or the resistance to motion, to move through water. Most of this resistance is in the form of drag, which is caused by the friction of water as it flows over the body of the fish. Drag is also caused by the backward pull of the eddies of water that form behind the fish’s tail.

30-2 Modern Fishes

If the fish is streamlined, the water flowing past both sides of the fish meets and blends together, producing less turbulence and less drag.

30-2 Modern Fishes

Primitive fishes had asymmetrical tails in which the vertebral column either pointed upward or downward as it extended from the body. When the fins pushed against the water to propel the fish forward, the movement was innefficient.

30-2 Modern Fishes

Modern fishes have tails in which two symmetrical lobes extend from the end of the vertebral column. The forward thrust provided by this tail is greater and more evenly distributed along the length of the body. They can swim faster and have more control over their movement.

30-2 Modern Fishes

Modern fishes have tails in which two symmetrical lobes extend from the end of the vertebral column. The forward thrust provided by this tail is greater and more evenly distributed along the length of the body. They can swim faster and have more control over their movement.

30-2 Form and Function in Fishes

The oceans of the earth are extensive and the fishes found in the them have had to adapt to survive in the tremendous range of environments.

Adaptations to aquatic life include various modes of feeding, specialized structures for gas exchange and paired fins for locomotion.

30-2 FeedingThere are fish who are herbivores,

carnivores, parasites, filter feeders and detritus feeders.

(detritivore—organisms that feeds on dead plants and animals.)

From the mouth, food passes through a short tube called the esophagus to the stomach where food is broken down. Then it travels to the pyloric ceca.

30-2 Respiration

Most fishes exchange gases using gills located on either side of the pharynx. The gills are made up of feathery threadlike structures called filaments. The filaments contain a network of fine capillaries that provide a large surface area for the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide.

30-2 RespirationFish pull the oxygen-rich water through

their mouth, over the gills and then pushing the oxygen-depleted water out through openings in the sides of the pharynx.

Some fishes such as lampreys and sharks have several gill openings. Most fish only have a single gill on each side. This opening is hidden beneath a protective bony cover called the operculum.

30-2 Respiration

Some fishes—lungfish—can survive in oxygen-poor water or in areas where the water dries up. These fishes have organs that serve as lungs. A tube brings oxygen from the air to this organ through the fish’s mouth. Some lungfishes will suffocate if not able to reach the surface.

30-2 Circulation

Fish have closed circulatory systems with a heart that pumps blood around the body in a single loop—from the heart to the gills, from the gills to the rest of the body and back to the heart.

In most fish, the heart consists of four parts: the sinus venosus, atrium, ventricle, and bulbus arteriosus. The sinus venosus is a thin-walled sac that collects blood from the fish’s veins before it flows to the atrium. The atrium is a large muscular chamber that serves a a one-way compartment for blood.

30-2 Circulation

The ventricle is a thick-walled muscular chamber where the pumping portion of the heart is located. It pumps blood to a large tube called the bulbus arteriosus. This connects to a large blood vessel called the aorta where the blood moves to the gills.

30-2 Circulation

The fish heart is important in circulation of oxygen throughout the fishes body.

30-2 Excretion

Most fishes rid themselves of nitrogenous wastes in the form of ammonia. Some wastes diffuse through the gills. Others are removed by the kidneys that filter wastes from the blood. Kidneys help fishes control the amount of water in their bodies. Fishes in salt water tend to lose water by osmosis. The kidneys of marine fishes concentrate wastes and return as much water as possible to the body.,

30-2 Response

Fishes have well-developed nervous systems organized around a brain. The brain has a cerebrum that is responsible for voluntary activities. The cerebrum’s primary function is for smell. The optic lobes process information from the eyes. The cerebellum coordinates body movement. The medulla oblongata controls the functioning of internal organs.

30-2 Response

Most fish have highly developed sense organs. Almost all fish that are active in daylight have well-developed eyes and color vision that is at least as good as ours. Most fish can taste and smell. They sense movement of water with their lateral line system. They use this to sense direction and motion of prey swimming nearby. Some fish such as the electric eel can even generate electricity.

30-2 Movement

Most fish move by alternately contracting paired sets of muscles on either side of the backbone. This creates a S-shaped curve that move down the fish’s body. This force moves fish through the water.

Most fish have an internal, gas-filled organ called a swim bladder that adjusts for buoyancy. The swim bladder lies just below the backbone.

30-2 Reproduction

The eggs of fishes are fertilized either externally or internally, depending upon the species. The female lays the eggs and the embryos in the eggs develop and hatch outside her body.Fishes whose eggs hatch outside the mother’s body are oviparous. As the embryos develop, they obtain food from the yolk in the egg.

30-2 Reproduction

The salmon are oviparous. In ovoviviparous species, such as guppies, the eggs stay in the mother’s body after internal fertilization. Each embryo develops inside and is nourished by the yolk. The young are born alive.

30-2 Groups of Fishes

All living fishes can be classified into three groups:

1. Jawless fishes2. Cartilaginous fishes3. Bony fish

30-2 Jawless Fishes

Jawless fish have no true teeth or jaws. Their skeletons are made of fibers and cartilage.

They lack vertebrae and instead keep their notochords as adults. There are two classes: hagfishes and lampreys.

30-2 Sharks and Their Relatives

The class Chondrichthyes contains sharks, rays, skates and sawfishes.

There are 350 species of sharks. They have an enormous number of teeth.

Great White

Hammerhead

Tiger Shark

Tiger Shark Sand Tiger Shark

Nurse Shark

Sea Dragons

Flying Fish Angel Fish

30-3 AmphibiansAn amphibian is a

vertebrate that lives in water as a larva and on land as an adult, breathes with lungs as a adult, has moist skin that contains mucus glands, and lacks scales and claws.

30-3 AmphibiansThe first amphibian

is guessed to have come to land during the late Devonian Period, about 360 million years ago.

30-3 AmphibiansEarly amphibians

evolved several adaptations that helped them live at least part of their lives out of water. Bones in the limbs and limb girdles of amphibians became stronger, permitting better movement.

30-3 AmphibiansLungs and

breathing tubes enable amphibians to breath air. The sternum or breastbone formed a bony shield to support and protect internal organs.

30-3 Amphibians

The Carboniferous period is known as the Age of Amphibians.

30-3 Form and Function

Feeding: Tadpoles are typically filter feeders or herbivores that graze on algae.

Adult amphibians are almost entirely carnivorous. They eat practically anything they can catch and swallow.

From the mouth, food slides down the esophagus into the stomach. The breakdown of food begins in the stomach and continues in the small intestines, where enzymes are made and food absorbed. There is a liver, pancreas, and gallbladder that aid in digestion just as in humans. At the end of the large intestines is a muscular cavity called the cloaca through which digestive wastes, urine and eggs or sperm leave the body.

30-3 Amphibian Heart and Kidneys

The amphibian heart has three separate chambers: left atrium, right atrium and ventricle. The blood circulates oxygen throughout the frog’s body. When the atria contract they empty their blood into the ventricle.

Amphibians have kidneys that filter wastes from the blood. The excretory product of the kidneys—urine—travels through tubes called ureters into the cloaca.

30-3 Group Assignment

Using pages 786-787, find how amphibians:

REPRODUCEMOVERESPOND TO THEIR ENVIRONMENT

What is the nictitating membrane?What is tympanic membranes?

30-3 Groups of Amphibians

The three groups of amphibians alive today are salamander, frogs and toads, and caecilians.

SALAMANDERS…Order Urodela, includes

salamanders and newts They have long bodies and tails. Most have 4 legs. They are carnivores.

30-3 Groups of Amphibians

CaeciliansLegless animals

that live in water or burrow in moist soil or sediment, feeding on small insects or termites.

30-3 Ecology of AmphibiansAmphibians are easy

prey for predators since they have little way to protect themselves.

Some release toxins. Coloration is their most effective protection.

Chapter 30--The End

Next class period there will be a test over the chapter and all homework is due. Be prepared. There will be a penalty for homework turned in late.