Advanced Study of Vertebrates

Description

The history and development of chordates is one of the most mysterious and interesting parts of the science of how life has changed over time. Chordates are living things that have a notochord and gill openings in their pharynx. This group has three types of animals: cephalochordates, urochordates (or tunicates), and vertebrates. Chordates, echinoderms, and hemichordates are a group of deuterostomes called supra-phyletic. This group is thought to have evolved from the regular ancestors of deuterostomes. Vertebrates evolved by making bodies that are the most complicated of all metazoans. In the 1980s, a new wave of molecular developmental science found that genes that code for interpretation factors and flag pathway molecules play important roles in the differentiation of embryonic cells, the arrangement of organs and tissues, and the morphogenesis of metazoan body designs. Researchers in evolutionary developmental science has found that all metazoans, from cnidarians to vertebrates, use the same set of interpretation factors and flag pathway molecules to build their bodies, even though they look different. These genes are sometimes called a genetic toolbox.