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Yunnanozoon
''Yunnanozoon lividum'' (Yunnan + Greek ζῷον ''zôion'', ''lividum''; "livid animal of Yunnan") is an extinct species of possible vertebrate or chordate from the Lower Cambrian, Chengjiang biota of Yunnan province, China. It is thought of as a deuterostome suspected of being either a hemichordate or chordate. In 2022, a study reanalyzed fossils of ''Yunnanozoon'' and found it to be one of the earliest members of the vertebrate family tree. ''Yunnanozoon'' is similar to the form '' Haikouella'', which is almost certainly a chordate. Still, there are anatomical differences from ''Haikouella'', including a smaller stomach and much larger (1 mm) pharyngeal teeth. It is by no means certain whether Yunannozoon possessed features such as a heart, gills, etc., which are seen in well-preserved specimens of '' Haikouella''. ''Yunnanozoon'' somewhat resembles the Middle Cambrian '' Pikaia'' from the Burgess shale of British Columbia in Canada. Thirteen pairs of symmetri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambrian Chordates
The Cambrian chordates are an extinct group of animals belonging to the phylum Chordata that lived during the Cambrian, between 485 and 538 million years ago. The first Cambrian chordate known is ''Pikaia gracilens'', a lancelet-like animal from the Burgess Shale in British Columbia, Canada. The discoverer, Charles Doolittle Walcott, described it as a kind of worm (annelid) in 1911, but was later realised to be a chordate. Since the discovery of other Cambrian fossils from the Burgess Shale in 1991, and from the Chengjiang biota of China in 1991, which were later found to be of chordates, several Cambrian chordates are known, with some fossils considered as putative chordates. The Cambrian chordates are characterised by the presence of segmented muscle blocks called myomeres and notochord, the two defining features of chordates. Before the full understanding of Cambrian fossils, chordates as members the most advanced phylum were believed to appear on Earth much later than the Cambr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haikouella
''Haikouella'' is an agnathan chordate from the Lower Cambrian Maotianshan Shales of Chengjiang County in Yunnan Province, China. An analysis in 2015 placed ''Haikouella'' as a junior synonym of '' Yunnanozoon,'' another Maotianshan shale Cambrian chordate''.'' It is similar to the form ''Yunnanozoon'', which is possibly a hemichordate. Still, there are anatomical differences from ''Yunnanozoon'', including a larger stomach and smaller (0.1 mm) pharyngeal teeth. ''Haikouella'' does not have bones or a movable jaw, but it otherwise resembles vertebrates. '' Haikouichthys'' and ''Myllokunmingia'', which seem to share significant fish-like characters, have been found in the same beds. Suspected hemichordates are also known from these deposits as well as from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia. Other than possible fish scales/plates from the Upper Cambrian of Wyoming, these Chinese fish-like chordates are one of the only known pre-Ordovician craniates. '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chordates
A chordate () is an animal of the phylum Chordata (). All chordates possess, at some point during their larval or adult stages, five synapomorphies, or primary physical characteristics, that distinguish them from all the other taxa. These five synapomorphies include a notochord, dorsal hollow nerve cord, endostyle or thyroid, pharyngeal slits, and a post-anal tail. The name “chordate” comes from the first of these synapomorphies, the notochord, which plays a significant role in chordate structure and movement. Chordates are also bilaterally symmetric, have a coelom, possess a circulatory system, and exhibit metameric segmentation. In addition to the morphological characteristics used to define chordates, analysis of genome sequences has identified two conserved signature indels (CSIs) in their proteins: cyclophilin-like protein and mitochondrial inner membrane protease ATP23, which are exclusively shared by all vertebrates, tunicates and cephalochordates. These CSIs p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vetulicolia
VetulicoliaThe taxon name, Vetulocolia, is derived from the type genus, ''Vetulicola'', which is a compound Latin word composed of ''vetuli'' "old" and ''cola'' "inhabitant". is a taxon (either phylum or subphylum in rank) encompassing several extinct Cambrian organisms. The vetulicolian body comprises two parts: a voluminous anterior forebody, tipped with an anteriorly positioned mouth and lined with a row of five round to oval-shaped features on each lateral side, which have been interpreted as gills (or at least openings in the vicinity of the pharynx); and a posterior section that primitively comprises seven segments and functions as a tail. All vetulicolians lack preserved appendages of any kind, having no legs, feelers or even eyes. The area where the anterior and posterior parts join is constricted. Their affinity has been uncertain; they have been considered to represent stem- and crown-group arthropods, stem-group vertebrates, and early deuterostomes. The general scient ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deuterostome
Deuterostomia (; in Greek) are animals typically characterized by their anus forming before their mouth during embryonic development. The group's sister clade is Protostomia, animals whose digestive tract development is more varied. Some examples of deuterostomes include vertebrates (and thus humans), sea stars, and crinoids. In deuterostomy, the developing embryo's first opening (the blastopore) becomes the anus, while the mouth is formed at a different site later on. This was initially the group's distinguishing characteristic, but deuterostomy has since been discovered among protostomes as well. This group is also known as enterocoelomates, because their coelom develops through enterocoely. The three major clades of deuterostomes are Chordata (e.g. vertebrates), Echinodermata (e.g. starfish), and Hemichordata (e.g. acorn worms). Together with Protostomia and their out-group Xenacoelomorpha, these compose the Bilateria, animals with bilateral symmetry and three ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chengjiang Biota
The Maotianshan Shales are a series of Early Cambrian deposits in the Chiungchussu Formation, famous for their '' Konservat Lagerstätten'', deposits known for the exceptional preservation of fossilized organisms or traces. The Maotianshan Shales form one of some forty Cambrian fossil locations worldwide exhibiting exquisite preservation of rarely preserved, non-mineralized soft tissue, comparable to the fossils of the Burgess Shale. They take their name from Maotianshan Hill (, Literal meaning: Hat Sky Mountain) in Chengjiang County, Yunnan Province, China. The most famous assemblage of organisms are referred to as the Chengjiang biota for the multiple scattered fossil sites in Chengjiang. The age of the Chengjiang Lagerstätte is locally termed Qiongzhusian, a stage correlated to the late Atdabanian Stage in Siberian sequences of the middle of the Early Cambrian. The shales date to ≤. The shales also contain the slightly younger Guanshan biota from Malong District in Yunna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cristozoa
Cristozoa (also known as crest animals) is a grouping of animals possessing a neural crest and derivatives. It includes all the Craniata, as well as their immediate precraniate precursors. The precraniate crest animals, such ''Haikouella'' and ''Yunnanozoon'', are all extinct and found only in Early Cambrian strata of Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the ... (southwestern China). References Deuterostome unranked clades {{chordate-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yunnan
Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the Chinese provinces of Guizhou, Sichuan, autonomous regions of Guangxi, and Tibet as well as Southeast Asian countries: Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar. Yunnan is China's fourth least developed province based on disposable income per capita in 2014. Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with high elevations in the northwest and low elevations in the southeast. Most of the population lives in the eastern part of the province. In the west, the altitude can vary from the mountain peaks to river valleys by as much as . Yunnan is rich in natural resources and has the largest diversity of plant life in China. Of the approximately 30,000 species of higher plants in China, Yunnan has perhaps 17,000 or more. Yunnan's reserves of aluminium, lead, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pharyngeal Teeth
Pharyngeal teeth are teeth in the pharyngeal arch of the throat of cyprinids, suckers, and a number of other fish species otherwise lacking teeth."Suckers ''Catostomidae''" Iowa Department of Natural Resources Many popular aquarium fish such as and loaches have these structures. Members of the genus '''' such as [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pikaia
''Pikaia gracilens'' is an extinct, primitive chordate animal known from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale of British Columbia. Described in 1911 by Charles Doolittle Walcott as an annelid, and in 1979 by Harry B. Whittington and Simon Conway Morris as a chordate, it became the "most famous early chordate fossil," or "famously known as the earliest" chordates. It is estimated to have lived during the latter period of the Cambrian explosion. Since it initial discovery, more than a hundred specimens have been recovered. The body structure resembles that of the lancelet and perhaps it swam much like an eel. A notochord and myomeres (segmented blocks of skeletal muscles) span the entire length of the body, and are considered as the defining signatures of chordate characters. Its primitive feature is indicated by the body covering, a cuticle, which is characteristic of invertebrates and some protochordates. The exact phylogenetic position is unclear. Proposed affinities include ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambrian
The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ago (mya) to the beginning of the Ordovician Period mya. Its subdivisions, and its base, are somewhat in flux. The period was established as "Cambrian series" by Adam Sedgwick, who named it after Cambria, the Latin name for 'Cymru' (Wales), where Britain's Cambrian rocks are best exposed. Sedgwick identified the layer as part of his task, along with Roderick Murchison, to subdivide the large "Transition Series", although the two geologists disagreed for a while on the appropriate categorization. The Cambrian is unique in its unusually high proportion of sedimentary deposits, sites of exceptional preservation where "soft" parts of organisms are preserved as well as their more resistant shells. As a result, our understanding of the Cambria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
