SUBPHYLUM INSECTA

3 body parts – head, thorax, and abdomen

Head with one pair of antennae and 2 compound eyes
3 pairs of legs and 1 or 2 pair of wings (some groups) attached to thorax.
Largely terrestrial
Tracheal tubes that carry air from outside openings (spiracle) to inside.
Abdomen contains digestive organs, sex organs, and Malpighian tubules (water-conserving excretory
organs)
Earliest insects were wingless, ground-dwelling scavengers that didn’t undergo metamorphosis.
Most modern insects have wings and undergo metamorphosis.
Ants = 10% world’s terrestrial biomass
Complete metamorphosis: egg, larvae (leaf-eating, wingless caterpillar), pupa (non-feeding body where
larval tissues are remodelling/transition), adult (winged nectar feeder) – moth, ladybug, honeybee,
housefly, cicada.
Incomplete metamorphosis: egg, nymphs, adult – cockroach, dragonfly, grasshopper, bed bug
Wingless insects – head lice, silverfish, bristletails

ECOLOGICAL IMPACT:

 Pollinate flowering plants.

 Food for wildlife
 Dispose of waste and remains.
 Humans’ main competitors for crops
 Spread human disease. Mosquitoes are the most important vectors.

ECHINODERMATA

All marine, deuterostome, mostly dioecious, some hermaphroditic.

Scavengers, carnivores

Begin life as bilateral larvae and develop into spiny-skinned, radial adults.

Interlocking spines and plates of calcium carbonate embedded in skin.

Coelomates and most have radial bodies with parts in multiples of 5 around a central axis.

No brain or nerve net. Nerve ring surrounds mouth and nerves that branch from the ring extend into
arms.

Eyespots at tips of arms detect light and movement.

Many invertebrates produce chemicals the inhibit growth of bacteria and protozoans.

Sea stars: active predators that move on tiny, fluid-filled tube feet, feed on bivalve mollusks, can
regenerate lost body parts. Sea stars glide as coordinated contraction and relaxation of the ampullae. To
feed, the stomach slides out through the mouth and into bivalve shell, stomach secretes acid and
enzymes that kill the mollusc. Partially digested food is taken into the stomach, digestion is completed
with digestive gland in the arms. Gas exchange by diffusion across the tube feet and tiny skin
projections. Dioecious. Arms hold sexual organs that release eggs or sperm into the water. Fertilization
produces an embryo that develops into a ciliated, bilateral larva, larva undergoes metamorphosis into
adult form.

Water-vascular system is a system of fluid-filled tubes and tube feet that function in locomotion,
including a central ring.

Ampullae – tiny bulbs that when contracted forces fluid into attached tube foot, extending the foot.

Sea urchins: calcium carbonate plates form a stiff, rounded cover from which spines protrude. Spines are
used for protection and movement. Herbivores, scavengers, carnivores.

Sea cucumbers expel a sticky mass of specialized threads or internal organs out through their anus.

CHORDATA

Archaeopteryx – first early bird fossil discovered.

Group of bilaterally symmetrical, coelomate animals.

Complete digestive system and closed circulatory system, stiff, flexible connective tissue (notochord),
hollow nerve cord runs parallel to notochord, gill slits, muscular tail, endoskeleton.

Deuterostome, bilateral symmetry, coelomate

Traits that characterize chordates:

1. Notochord: long flexible rod of mesoderm in all chordates. Rod of stiff but flexible connective
tissue that extends the length of the body and supports it.
2. Dorsal, hollow nerve cord: ectodermal tissue that forms a spinal cord. Parallels the notochord
and runs along the dorsal (upper) surface.
3. Gill slits: narrow openings that extend across the wall of the pharynx (the throat region).
4. Muscular tail that extends beyond the anus.

Postnatal tail: muscle and skeletal elements provide propulsive forces.

Pharyngeal slits: suspension feeding devices in invertebrates, gas exchange in aquatic vertebrates, jaws
and hearing in vertebrates.

Invertebrate chordates – lancelets and tunicates

Lancelets: subphylum Cephalochordata, fish-shaped body, 5cm long adult, can swim, bury their tail
down in sediment, live in sediment, filter food particles out of water, simple brain, eyespot at end of
nerve cord detects light.

Tunicates: subphylum Urochordata, only larvae have typical chordate traits, larva does not feed,
undergo metamorphosis into barrel-shaped adult, suck in water through tube to get nutrients.
First vertebrates – fish that sucked up food. Jaws (hinged skeletal elements) evolved later.

Agnatha (jawless fish)

Fish: first vertebrate lineage to evolve, rely on gills for oxygen exchange.

Palaeozoic era

Jawless - lampreys, hagfishes

Lampreys: some are fish parasites, long and slender body plants that lack paired fins, mouth surrounded
by large sucker, tongues covered by horny toothlike projections, undergo metamorphosis.

Hagfishes: marine bottom feeders, feed on worms and carcasses, poor eyesight, no vertebrae, partial
skull, emit a compound that combines with water to form gelatinous slime.

Jawed fish

First animals with scales, most have movable paired fins.

Scales: hard, flattened structures that cover the skin.

Jaws evolved from gill arches (skeletal elements that support gills)

Placoderms: Devonian period, bony armour covering head and neck, sharp bony plates instead of teeth,
some were very large.

Acanthodians: Devonian period, spiny and cartilaginous fish, centimetres long, no bony armour.

OVIPARITY OVOVIVIPARITY VIVIPARITY

Trait of laying eggs Laying of eggs and keeping Giving birth to young ones
them inside mother animal’s directly
body till hatched
Internal or external fertilization Internal fertilization Internal fertilization
Lay eggs Lay eggs Doesn’t lay eggs
Nutrients from egg yolk Nutrients from egg yolk Nutrients from mother
No placental connection No placental connection Embryo connected to placenta
Embryo develops outside Embryo develops inside mother Embryo develops inside mother
mother body body body
Cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes)

Jawed fish with cartilage skeleton, 5-7 gill slits uncovered at body surface, jaws include teeth that grow
in rows (continually shed and replaced), dioecious, internal fertilization, eggs develop in egg case inside
mother’s body, cloaca for reproduction and remove wastes.

Cloaca: single opening on ventral surface functioning in reproduction and serves as exit for digestive and
urinary waste.

Sharks can be predators, scavengers that suck up invertebrates, or strain plankton. Majority viviparous

Ray – Flattened body with large pectoral fins, bottom-feeders, feed by filtering out plankton, barbed
venomous tail defends against predators, ovoviviparous (eggs that develop within the maternal body;
not fertilised by father; once egg hatches, it remains inside mother and is nurtured from within; baby
born live)

Chimaera/ghost shark: feed on molluscs, crabs, marine worms. Oviparous

Modern bony fish (Osteichthyes)

Ray-finned fished and lobe-finned fishes

Bone replaces cartilage, gill slits hidden beneath gill cover, gas-filled organ(s) derived from outpouchings
of pharynx.

Ray-finned fish have thin, membranous fins; swim bladder volume can be adjusted to affect buoyancy,
separate openings for urinary, digestive, and reproductive systems.

Lobe-finned fish have thick, fleshy fins, bones support the inside of fins, dioecious.

 Marine coelacanths: thought to be extinct until 1938.

 Freshwater lungfishes: have lungs, oxygen diffuses from lungs into blood.

2-chambered fish heart – 1 atrium (receives blood into heart) and 1 ventricle (pump blood away from
heart).

Lungs: moist, internal sacs that enhance gas exchange with the air. Air-filled sacs with an associated
network of tiny blood vessels.

Amphibians – first tetrapods

Scaleless, land-dwelling vertebrates. Typically breed in water. Evolved from fish ~395 million years ago.

Changes supporting the move to land – skeletal changes, lungs became larger and more complex,
eyelids evolved to keep eyes from drying out, 2-chambered heart into 3-chambered heart, emerged
neck allowed head to move independently of the rest of the body.

3-chambered heart – 2 atria and 1 ventricle. In one chamber, oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood mix.

Modern amphibians are carnivores, eat insects and worms.

- Order Caudata: salamanders

- Order Gymnophiona: caecilians live in tropic, wormlike form, limbless, blind.
- Order Anura (without tail): frogs and toads

Frogs and toads undergo metamorphosis.

FROGS TOADS
Thin, wet, smooth skin with more colour Thick, dry skin with bumps and usually brown
Lays eggs in clusters Lays eggs in chain
Slim body type Stout body type
Long legs Short legs
Prefer to jump Prefer to walk or use small hops
 Live in water Live on land
Declining diversity - Thin, scaleless skin makes them more susceptible to parasites, pathogens, and
pollutants, habitat loss.

Amniote evolution

Amniotes: thin, tough membranous sac that encloses the embryo or fetus.

Live life entirely on land, adapted to life in dry places, have lungs, waterproof skin (keratin), dioecious,
produce eggs in which young are hatched, kidney and large intestine are bigger than in amphibians.

Produce eggs in which an embryo develops bathed in a fluid so they can develop on dry land

Dinosaurs are a reptile group. Birds branched from dinosaur lineage during the Jurassic. Dinosaurs
became extinct by end of the Cretaceous.

Endotherms: maintain body temperature by adjusting metabolic heat production.

Ectotherm: body temperature varies with the environment. Modern nonbird reptiles.

Reptiles

Turtles, lizards, snakes, crocodilians, birds

Ectotherms, oviparous or viviparous.

Nonbird reptiles

Order Squamata – lizards and snakes. Covered with overlapping scales, periodically shed their skin.
Herbivores, predators. 3-chambered heart

Snakes: predators with teeth, evolved from terrestrial lizards

Komodo dragon: largest lizard, venomous bite

Order Testudines – turtles. Bony, keratin-covered shell attached to skeleton, toothless, freshwater
turtles eat fishes and invertebrates, land turtles (tortoises) eat plants, layer of keratin covers jaws and
forms horny beak. Herbivore, prey on fish and invertebrates. 3-chambered heart

Example of sea turtles: hawksbill sea turtle and green sea turtle, loggerhead sea turtle, leatherback sea
turtle, olive ridley sea turtle. Example of freshwater turtle: narrow-bridged mud turtle, brown wood
turtle, black wood turtle

Order Crocodilia – crocodilians. Predators with long snout and many sharp peglike teeth, long powerful
tail propels to swim, spend much of their time in water, 4-chambered heart (like birds).

4-chambered heart – 2 atria and 2 ventricles. birds and mammals. Oxygen-poor blood from body tissues
never mixes with oxygen-rich blood from lungs.