Animal Diversity-2

Bilateria: an organ level of organization

All animals except those in the four phyla mentioned above have bilaterally symmetrical ancestors and contain three body layers (triploblastic) with coalition of tissues into organs. The body plans that are generally recognized are acoelomate, pseudocoelomate, and coelomate.

Acoelomates have no internal fluid-filled body cavity (coelom). Pseudocoelomates have a cavity between the inner (endoderm) and the middle (mesoderm) body layers. Coelomates have a cavity within the mesoderm, which can show one of two types of development: schizocoelous or enterocoelic. Most protostomes show schizocoelous development, in which the mesoderm proliferates from a single cell and divides to form a mass on each side of the body; the coelom arises from a split within each mass. Deuterostomes show enterocoelic pouching, in which the endoderm evaginates and pinches off discrete pouches, the cavities of which become the coelom and the wall the mesoderm. The animals in these major divisions of the Bilateria differ in other fundamental ways, which are detailed below.

Unlike sessile sponges or floating jellyfish, the Bilateria typically move actively in pursuit of food, although many members have further evolved into sessile or radial forms. Directed movement is most efficient if sensory organs are located at the head or forward-moving end of the animal. Organs of locomotion are most efficiently arranged along both sides, a fact that defines the bilateral symmetry; many internal organs are not in fact paired, whereas muscle layers, limbs, and sensory organs almost invariably are. The diffuse nerve net of coelenterates coalesces into definite tracts or bundles, which run posteriorly from the anterior brain to innervate the structures of locomotion.

Acoelomates

Flatworms (phyla Platyhelminthes, Nemertea, and Mesozoa) lack a coelom, although nemerteans have a fluid-filled cavity at their anterior, or head, end, which is used to eject the proboscis rapidly. The lack of a fluid-filled cavity adjacent to the muscles reduces the extent to which the muscles can contract and the force they exert. Because most also lack a circulatory system, supplying muscle tissues with fuel and oxygen can be no faster than the rate at which these substances diffuse through solid tissue. Flatworms are thus constrained to be relatively flat and comparatively small; parasitic worms, which do not locomote, can achieve immense lengths (e.g., tapeworms), but they remain very thin. The larger of the free-living flatworms have extensively divided guts, which reach to within a few cells of the muscles, thus compensating for the lack of a circulatory system. Most flatworms have but one opening to the gut. Nemerteans, in addition to a coelom-like housing for their proboscis, have attained a one-way gut and a closed circulatory system. Both increase their ability to move food and oxygen to all parts of the body. Flatworms are considered to be the ancestors of all other Bilateria.

Pseudocoelomates, or Aschelminths

The pseudocoelomates include the nematodes, rotifers, gastrotrichs, and introverts. Some members of some other phyla are also, strictly speaking, pseudocoelomate. These four phyla of tiny body size (many species no larger than the bigger protozoans) are placed together in part because they lack mesoderm on the inner side of the body cavity. Consequently, no tissue, muscular or connective, supports the gut within the coelomic fluid. For tiny organisms, this is advantageous for conservation of tissue: there is no reason to evolve or to maintain a tissue that is not functionally important. The inconspicuousness of most of these phyla has led to a slow advancement in understanding their phylogenetic position in the animal kingdom.

Coelomates

The advantage of a true coelom is the ability of the inner mesenteric (mostly connective tissue) layer to suspend the central gut in the middle of the animal. Otherwise, in those animals with a body cavity used in locomotion, gravity would pull the gut down and severely curtail body size. Coelomates have attained vastly larger body sizes than has any other group of animals. Within the coelomates, the coelom has been of variable significance to the form and diversity of the various phyla. For example, it is essential for the burrowing abilities of annelids and related phyla. It has largely lost this significance in the arthropods, however, which have transferred locomotion to limbs supported by an exoskeleton rather than a coelomic hydroskeleton. Suspension is the main function of the coelom in vertebrates, which achieve the largest body sizes among animals by virtue of an endoskeleton that does not need to be shed during growth.

The protostome coelomates (acoelomates and pseudocoelomates are also protostomes) include the mollusks, annelids, arthropods, pogonophorans, apometamerans, tardigrades, onychophorans, phoronids, brachiopods, and bryozoans. Deuterostomes include the chaetognaths, echinoderms, hemichordates, and chordates.
In early development protostome coelomates mostly differ from deuterostome coelomates in the following ways: (1) The mouth of protostomes is the blastopore, the original opening into the developing gut which is formed during the invagination of cells during gastrulation; that of deuterostomes is a secondary opening, with the blastopore becoming the anus. (2, 3) Early cleavage is typically spiral and determinate in protostomes, which means that the dividing cells are oriented at an angle to one another and that the ultimate fate of the cells is mostly determined from the beginning. Deuterostomes, in contrast, show indeterminate, radial cleavage, with the dividing cells becoming layered and the fate of early cells a product of where they are positioned later in development. (4) Coelom formation is schizocoelous in most protostomes, whereas enterocoelous development is typical of deuterostomes. (5) For those with a larval stage, the characteristic larval forms also differ.
The two phyla that have clearly dominated both land and sea since nearly the beginning of animal evolution are the arthropods and chordates, protostomous and deuterostomous coelomates, respectively. A key to arthropod success has been the differentiation of many serially repeated parts, in particular jointed appendages with a rigid exoskeleton, to perform the varied functions necessary to maintain life. The exoskeleton, however, sets a moderate upper limit to body size. In contrast, vertebrates share all habitats with arthropods by virtue of the larger maximum size permitted by the development of an internal rigid skeleton. More than does a coelom, the evolution of rigid, jointed skeletons has allowed these two phyla to dominate most animal communities.