ANIMAL EVOLUTION AND DIVERSITY

What is an Animal?
The Origins of Animal Diversity
Two Views on Animal Diversity

WHAT IS AN ANIMAL?
Structure, nutrition, and life history define animals

1. Animals are multicellular, heterotrophic eukaryotes

-animals must take into their bodies preformed organic molecules
- Most animals do this by ingestion --- eating other organisms or organic material that is decomposing.

2. Animal cells lack the cell wall that provide strong support in the bodies of plants and fungi.
- The multicellular bodies of animals are held together by ECM structural proteins (collagen)
Intercellular junctions (specialized regions of contact between the plasma membranes of adjacent cells)
 tight junctions, desmosomes, and gap junction

3. Also unique among animals are two types of tissues responsible for impulse conduction and
movement: nervous and muscle tissue

4. A few key features of life history also distinguish animals

⁃Most animals reproduce sexually (diploid stage dominant)
⁃In most species, a small flagellated sperm fertilizes larger, nonmotile egg to form a diploid zygote

5. The transformation of a zygote to an animal of specific form depends on the controlled expression in
the developing embryo of special regulatory genes called HOX genes
⁃All eukaryotes have genes that regulate the expression of other genes
⁃And many of these regulatory genes contain common "modules" of DNA sequences called
homeoboxes

THE ORIGINS OF ANIMAL DIVERSITY

Most animal phyla originated in a relatively brief span of geologic time

Animal Diversification
⁃occurred rapidly on the vast scale of geologic time (late Precambrian and early Cambrian)
⁃probably lasted about 40 million years (about 565 to 525 mya)

Paleontologists have named the last period of the Precambrian era, the (NAAY NAKA SULAT DIRIA) for the
Ediacara Hills of Australia, where fossils of Precambrian animals were first discovered
-Fossil age range - 565 to 543 million years old
⁃in 2000 - discovery of 570M yo. fossilized animal embryos in Chinese strata
⁃in 1998 - fossilized burrows of animals in rocks 1.1 B
What sparked the Cambrian explosion?
There are three main hypotheses for what caused the diversification of animals:

1. Ecological cause
The main variation on this hypothesis emphasizes the emergence during the Cambrian of predator-prey
relationships.
Result:
⁃diversity of evolutionary
⁃adaptations
⁃protective shells modes of locomotion

2. Geological cause
For example atmospheric oxygen finally reached a high enough concentration during the Cambrian to support
the more active metabolism required for the feeding and other activities of mobile animals.

3. Genetic cause
Hypothesis: the diversification of animals was associated with the evolution of the HOX complex of regulatory
genes, which lead to variation in morphology during embryonic development.
Variations in the special and temporal expression of HOX genes.
-When reconstructing the evolutionary history of animal phyla, systematists depend largely on clues from;
⁃comparative anatomy
⁃embryology
⁃developmental genetics
⁃molecular systematics of extant species

The figure below diagrams one hypothesis for how such an ancestor may have evolved into simple animals
with specialized cells arranged in two or more layers.

The traditional phylogenetic tree of animals is based mainly on grades in body "plans"

Each major branch represents what systematists call a GRADE

GRADE ⁃ defined by certain body-plan features shared by the animals belonging to that branch.
For example, the first branch point splits the grade of animals with no true tissues (the parazoa) from the grade
of animals with true tissues (the eumetazoa).

The Radiata-Bilateria Dichotomy

-The eumetazoans are divided into two major branches, partly on the basis of body symmetry.
-Members of phylum Cnidaria and phylum Ctenophora have radial symmetry and are collectively called radials
-The other major branch of eumetazoan evolution led to animals with bilateral (two-side) symmetry. Animals
of this body-plan grade are collectively called bilaterals

Body symmetry
(a) The parts of a radial animal, such as this sea anemone radiate from the center. Any imaginary slice through
the central axis would divide the animal into mirror images.
(b)A bilateral animal, such as a lobster has a left and right side, only one imaginary cut would divide the animal
into mirror-Image halves.
A radial animal has a top and a bottom (or an oral (mouth) and aboral side), but has no head end or rear end
and no left or right.

A bilateral animal has a dorsal (top) side and a ventral (bottom) side: an anterior (head) end and a postenor
(tail) end; and a left and right side

Cephalization
- associated with bilateral symmetry
-an evolutionary trend toward the concentration of sensory equipment on the anterior end
- includes the development of a central nervous system (in most bilateral animals)

The symmetry of an animal generally fits its lifestyle.

-Many radial animals are sessile forms (attached to a substratum) or plankton (drifting or weakly swimming
aquatic forms).
-Most animals that move actively from place to place are bilateral

Gastrula Stage
Embryo forms germ layers that give rise to the various tissues and organs of the body
 Ectoderm - covering the surface of the embryo
 Endoderm - the innermost germ layer
 Mesoderm - middle developmental layer between the ectoderm and endoderm, which gives rise to the
skeleton, muscle, heart and bones.
-As a group, the radiata are said to be diploblastic (having two germ layers).
-All other euretazoans, the bilateria, are tripoblastic (having three germ layers).

The Acoelomate, Pseudocoelomate, and Coelomate Grades

 Aceolomate
-Solid-bodied animals; without a cavity b/w the digestive tract and outer body wall
-Platyhelminthes

 Coelomate
- Have tube-within-a-tube body plans; with a body cavity, a fluid-filled space separating the digestive tract from
the outer body wall
-completely lined with mesoderm
-Coelomates are animals with a true coelom

 Pseudocoelomate
-fluid filled body cavity, partially lined with mesoderm
-If the cavity is not completely lined by tissue derived from mesoderm, it is termed a Pseudocoelomates
-Animals with this body plan, such as rotifers (phylum Rotifera) and roundworms (phylum Nematoda), are
called Pseudocoelomates

Among animals with a body cavity, there are differences in how the cavity develops.
The Protostome-Deuterostome Dichotomy
The coelomate phyla are divided into two distinct grades:
1. Protostomes
-Mollusks, annelids, arthropods, and several other phyla represent one of these grades and are collectively
called protostomes
2. Deuterostomes
-Echinoderms, chordates, and some other phyla, collectively called deuterostomes, represent the other grade.
Protostomes and deuterostomes are distinguished by several fundamental differences in their
development.

Cleavage Pattern of PROTOSTOMES

1. Spiral cleavage
- Planes of cell division are diagonal to the vertical axis of the embryo
- At eight-cell stage, small cells lie in the grooves between larger, underlying cells
- Many protostomes
2. Determinate cleavage
-of some protostomes rigidly casts the developmental fate of each embryonic cell very early

Cleavage Pattern of DEUTEROSTOMES

-Radial Cleavage
-Indeterminate Cleavage
-Echinoderms and Chordates
-Blastopore forms the anus
-Enterocoules

Coelom Formation
PROTOSTOMES
-As the archenteron forms in a protostome, initially solid masses of mesoderm split to form the coelomic
cavities; this is called schizocoelous development.
Archenteron - digestive cavity of an embryo, and this digestive cavity will eventually form the gastrointestinal
tract when the embryo fully develops.

DEUTEROSTOMES
- Development of the body cavities of deuterostomes is termed enterocoelous:
The mesoderm buds from the wall of the archenteron and hollows to become the coelomic cavities.

Blastopore Fate.
Protostome (Gr. Protos - first; stoma - mouth)
Mouth = from blastopore (1st opening)
Anus = 2nd opening

Deuterostome (Gr. Deuteros - second)

Mouth =from 2nd opening
Anus = from blastoporeo
MICROTAXONOMY
Classification at the species level

Taxonomy - a multilayered science

• Greek: taxis - order, nomos - law
• Simpson (1961) - the theory and practice of delimiting kinds of organisms and classifying them.
• Wilson (1992) - science and art.
• ICZN - Theory and practice of classifying organisms.

STEPS IN TAXONOMY
• Microtaxonomy - the demarcation of species
- What is a species? What species concept is best?
• Macrotaxonomy - the classification of species
- How do we classify organism? According to genealogy or degree of similarity, or both?
Fundamental concepts of taxonomy

1. Alpha taxonomy
- concerned with the description and designation of species
- Basis of morphological characters
- started with work of Tournefort, de Jeussieu and Linnaeus
- The classification of organisms into species is the most fundamental aspects of alpha taxonomy
- Alpha taxonomy also involves naming organisms, according to set of rules
- Taxonomy is not just about identifying and naming species. It is also about understanding relationships with
other species.
- Advances in technology and genetic analysis have allowed for the refinement of the earliest classification
systems based on physical characteristics, such as size, shape, and color
- In the 18th century and Linnaeus developed the binomial system of nomenclature which is used today
- With the advent of DNA sequencing, technology, alpha taxonomy has undergone a revolution in recent years
- Advances in technology and genetic analysis have allowed for the refinement of alpha taxonomy

From specimen collection to classification

1. Specimen collection
2. Reservation techniques
3. Examination and description
4. Naming and classification

The role of technology in alpha taxonomy

1. DNA sequencing
2. Digital imaging
3. Computer software
4. Online databases

Challenges of alpha taxonomy

1. Taxonomic Impediment
2. Morphological variation
3. Cryptic species (comprise two or more taxa that are grounded under a single name because they are more-or-less indistinguishable morphologically)
4. Hybridization
2. Beta Taxonomy (Macrotaxonomy)
-arrangement of species into hierarchical system of higher categories or taxa
-Developed in the 20th century

3. Gamma taxonomy
-aspect of taxonomy concerned with intraspecific population end with phylogenetic trends
-Is made to account for the origin and development of species
-taxonomists relate to fossil evidence, which includes all taxa of extinct groups

4.Omega taxonomy
-it is an ultimate perfect system based upon all available characters consolidation of Alpha, Omega Taxonomy
provides best picture on classification
- based on information from other branches i.e., from Embryology, cytology, palynology, phytochemistry and
serology along with morphological characters is called omega taxonomy.

Aims of taxonomy
There are three aims of taxonomy
1. Identification
2. Nomenclature
3. Classification

Two main approaches

1. Empirical approach
⁃ It is based on practical aspects observation of characteristics
2. Interpretive approach
⁃ the classification is based on interpretation and evolution of taxon e.g phylogenetic system
⁃ provide convenient method of identification and communication
⁃ Provide classification which is based on natural affinities of organisms as far as possible.