Deuterostome

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Deuterostomes
Fossil range: Late Ediacaran - Recent
Image:Sea cucumber.jpg
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Subkingdom: Eumetazoa
(unranked) Bilateria
Superphylum: Deuterostomia
Grobben, 1908
Phyla

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Overview

Deuterostomes (taxonomic term: Deuterostomia; from the Greek: "second mouth") are a superphylum of animals. They are a subtaxon of the Bilateria branch of the subregnum Eumetazoa, and are opposed to the protostomes. Deuterostomes are distinguished by their embryonic development; in deuterostomes, the first opening (the blastopore) becomes the anus, while in protostomes it becomes the mouth.

There are four living phyla of deuterostomes:

The phylum Chaetognatha (arrow worms) may also belong here. Extinct groups may include the phylum Vetulicolia. Echinodermata, Hemichordata and Xenoturbellida form the clade Ambulacraria.[1]

In both deuterostomes and protostomes, a zygote first develops into a hollow ball of cells, called a blastula. In deuterostomes, the early divisions occur parallel or perpendicular to the polar axis. This is called radial cleavage, and also occurs in certain protostomes, such as the lophophorates. Deuterostomes display indeterminate cleavage, in which the developmental fate of the cells in the developing embryo are not determined by the identity of the parent cell. Thus if the first four cells are separated, each cell is capable of forming a complete small larva, and if a cell is removed from the blastula the other cells will compensate.

In deuterostomes the mesoderm forms as evaginations of the developed gut that pinch off, forming the coelom. This is called enterocoely.

Both the Hemichordata and Chordata have gill slits, and primitive fossil echinoderms also show signs of gill slits. A hollow nerve cord is found in all chordates, even tunicates (even if it disappears in the adults). Some hemichordates also have a tubular nerve cord. In the early embryonic stage it looks like the hollow nerve cord of chordates. Because of the degenerated nervous system of echinoderms it is not possible to discern much about their ancestors in this matter, but based on different facts it is quite possible that all the present deuterostomes evolved from a common ancestor which had gill slits, a hollow nerve cord and a segmented body. It could have resembled the small group of Cambrian deuterostomes named Vetulicolia.

Notes

  1. Stach, Thomas, Samuel Dupont, Olle Israelson, Geraldine Fauville, Hiroaki Nakano and Mike Thorndyke. (2005) "Immunocytological evidence supports the hypotheses that Xenoturbella bocki (Westblad 1949), phylum uncertain, is a deuterostome and that Ambulacraria is monophyletic". Organisms Diversity & Evolution. On-line at [1]

External links

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ca:Deuteròstom cs:Druhoústí de:Neumünder et:Teissuusedeo:Novbuŝulo eu:Deuterostomio fa:پسین‌دهانیانko:후구동물 it:Deuterostomi ka:მეორეპირიანები lv:Otrmutnieki hu:Újszájúak nl:Deuterostomiano:Deuterostomier oc:Deuterostomiasimple:Deuterostome sk:Druhoústovce sr:Deuterostomiauk:Вториннороті


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Some of the initial content on this page may be incorporated in part from copyleft sources in the public domain including wikis such as Wikipedia and AskDrWiki. Drug information for patients came from the The National Library of Medicine. Infectious disease information may have come from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Differential Diagnoses are drawn from clinicians as well as an amalgamation of 3 sources: 1.The Disease Database; 2. Kahan, Scott, Smith, Ellen G. In A Page: Signs and Symptoms. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 2004:3; 3. Sailer, Christian, Wasner, Susanne. Differential Diagnosis Pocket. Hermosa Beach, CA: Borm Bruckmeir Publishing LLC, 2002:7 .

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