Paleozoic Phylogeny

Learning objectives:

● Identify major clades of organisms from the Paleozoic era.

● Construct a cladogram demonstrating the relationships between these major clades.

Materials:

● Electronic device capable of editing this Google Doc

● Internet access

Introduction

At the beginning of the Cambrian period, life on earth changed drastically. From the emergence of life
4–3.5 billion years ago (Ga) until the beginning of the Paleozoic era 541 million years ago (Ma), life
primarily consisted of single-celled organisms floating around the ocean. However, all of this changed
with the Cambrian Explosion. While the triggers for the Cambrian explosion are still hotly debated, the
fossil record clearly preserves the geologically rapid appearance of multicellular organisms. Many of
these organisms also possessed hard body parts, another new appearance in the fossil record. These
hard parts include the exoskeletons of invertebrates and, later, the internal skeletons of vertebrates.

All of the biodiversity we see around us today has its

roots in the Paleozoic era. Animals like molluscs,
arthropods, corals, and vertebrates all appeared for the
first time during the Cambrian period and continued to
diversify throughout the Paleozoic. Terrestrial fungus
and plants both appeared in the fossil record shortly
afterwards during the Ordovician. The earliest land
animals show up around 400 Ma during the Devonian.
By the end of the Carboniferous, those early tetrapods
(terrestrial vertebrates) have diversified into distinct
amphibians, reptiles, and the synapsid ancestors of
mammals are all present in the fossil record.

In this activity, you will familiarize yourself with some of

the most charismatic organisms of the Paleozoic and
explore how they are related to one another.
Remember—all life descended from a single last
common anc estor, so with a little scientific sleuthing,
Figure 1
we can determine how all sorts of different groups are
related to one another!

Exploring Paleozoic Flora, Fauna, and Fungi

Your TA will break you into groups of 3-4 students. Record the names of each of your group members
below in the table below.
 1. Kevin O’Mara 2. Paul Wagner

3. Kathryn Clark 4. Shiryu Kataoka

1. Split up the following taxa that appeared during the Paleozoic amongst your group members. Fill out
the table below. (Don’t know where to look? Wikipedia is actually a great source for information like
this. Other good sources include websites that end in “.edu.” Additionally, you can find helpful
images from Wikimedia Commons.)

Table 1

Time Period of Picture of fossil or paleoartist

Organism Phylum
Existence reconstruction
Anomalocaris Cambrian Arthropoda

Trilobite Cambrian - Arthropoda

Permian

Meganeura Late Arthropoda

Carboniferous-

Middle Permian
Ammonites Devonian- Mollusca

Cretaceous

Gastropods Late Cambrian- Mollusca

(snails)
Present

Brittle stars Early Ordovician- Echinodermata

Present

Crinoids (sea Mid/Late Echinodermata

lilies) Paleozoic-

Present

Tabulate coral Early Ordovician- Cnidaria

Present/ end of
the Permian
Present
Heterostracans Early Silurian/ Chordata
Late Devoanian

Dunkleosteus Devonian Chordata

Helicoprion Carboniferous Chordata

Dimetrodon Permian Chordata

Diplocaulus Late Permian Chordata

Weigeltisaurus Permian Chordata

Prototaxites Late Devonian Kingdom Fungi

Scale trees Carboniferous Kingdom Plantae

Cladogram Construction

As you can see, life in the Proterozoic was incredibly diverse and came in all shapes and sizes! Despite
the great variety of organisms, all of these groups share a common ancestor. Because of this, we can
reconstruct the relationships between these organisms by comparing certain characters to determine
their common ancestry. For instance, consider the character of possessing fur. Cats and dogs have fur;
lizards, on the other hand, do not. On the basis of this character, we can infer that cats and dogs are
more closely related to one another than either is to lizards. This inference is based on the idea that cats
and dogs both share a last common ancestor that also had fur, passing that trait to its descendants. The
figure to the right demonstrates how these relationships would be represented in a cladogram.

Let’s begin by looking just at those

organisms from Kingdom Animalia. One of

the major characters that divides

some of the broadest
classifications of animals is bilateral symmetry. Animals with bilateral symmetry can be divided into two
roughly mirror images; the figure below shows three examples of bilaterally symmetrical animals. (Note
that the starfish also has pentaradial symmetry, meaning that it can also be divided into five similar
segments.)

Figure 3

2. Consider the animals in Table 1. Which of these animals have bilateral symmetry? Which do not?
What does this mean about the ancestry of these two different groups? Respond in 2-3 sentences
below.

The animals in Table 1 that have bilateral symmetry include: Anomalocaris, Weigeltisaurus,
Diplocaulus, Dimetrodon, Helicoprion, Dunkleosteus, Heterostracans, Brittle stars,Gastropods
(snails), Ammonites, Meganeura, Trilobite

animals without bilateral symmetry: scale trees, Prototaxites, Tabulate coral, Crinoids (sea lilies),

I would assume that animals with bilateral symmetry share a common ancestor. Animals without
bilateral symmetry also most likely share a common ancestor.

The Paleozoic animals you identified above that have bilateral symmetry are all from the group of
animals known as Bilateria. Bilaterians can be divided into two main groups: the deuterostomes and the
protostomes. The main morphological difference between deuterostomes and protostomes happens
during embryonic development and has to do with whether the mouth or the anus forms first.
(Seriously!) Protostomes include arthropods and molluscs; deuterostomes include echinoderms and
chordates.

3. Which of the bilaterian animals in Table 1 are protostomes? Which are deuterostomes?

protostomes: snails, Ammonites, Meganeura, Trilobite

deuterostomes: Weigeltisaurus,Dimetrodon, Dunkleosteus, Brittle stars

4. Let’s look at the protostomes first. First, record the taxon names in the first column below. Then
determine whether they exhibit each of the four characters (yes) or do not (no).

Table 2: Protostomes

Segmented 3 pairs of Possession

Taxon
body plan legs of a mantle
snails no no yes

Ammonites no no yes
Meganeura yes yes no

Trilobite yes no yes

Anomalocaris no no no

5. Which of the protostomes possess a segmented body plan? Which of these possesses 3 pairs of
legs? Using this information, reconstruct the evolutionary relationship between these taxa using the
format shown in Figure 2. (For this question, the format has been provided.)

Meganeura

Trilobite

Ammonites

Congratulations! You have just reconstructed the evolutionary relationships

between these Paleozoic arthropods. This leaves us with those protostomes that possess a mantle, one
of the defining characteristics, or synapomorphies, of phylum Mollusca.
6. Using a cladogram, show the relationship between the molluscs. (Technology instructions: within
Microsoft Word, use the Insert 🡪 Shapes 🡪 line tool to draw the lines and the Insert 🡪 Textbox tool to
insert taxon names; within Google Docs, use the Insert 🡪 Drawing 🡪 New tool. You can also draw
your cladogram separately and upload a photograph of it into this document. If you need help, your
TA can assist you.)

You have now reconstructed the relationships between the arthropod protostomes and the mollusc
protostomes. We can now combine those two trees to show the relationships among all the
protostomes from this list.

7. Construct a cladogram for clade Protostomia below. Use the technology instructions from Question
6. Be sure to include all the taxa you looked at in Questions 5 and 6.
Now that we have reconstructed the relationships among the protostomes, let’s turn our attention to
the deuterostomes.

8. Fill out Table 3, indicating whether each taxon possesses (yes) or does not possess (no) the following
characters. Divide the taxa among your group so that each group member investigates 2-3 of the
taxa.

Table 3: Deuterostomes
Jaw (made
Pentaradial Possess a Cartilaginous Amniotic
of bone or Four legs
Symmetry notochord skeleton egg
cartilage)

Brittle stars no no yes yes no no

 Crinoids (sea yes no no no no no
lilies)

Heterostracans no no no no no no
Dunkleosteus no yes yes yes no no

Helicoprion no yes yes yes no no

Dimetrodon no yes yes no yes yes

Diplocaulus no no yes no no yes

Weigeltisaurus no yes yes no yes yes

9. Using the character data you gathered in Table 3, construct a phylogeny for these Paleozoic
deuterostomes below. Here are some helpful hints:
● Jawed vertebrates are united in clade Gnathostomata.
● Terrestrial (land-living) vertebrates are united in clade Tetrapoda, which means “four feet.”
● The closest living relatives to phylum Chordata (animals who possess a notochord at some
point in their life) is phylum Echinodermata.
You now have two separate cladograms, or trees: one for Deuterostomia and one for Protostomia. This
just leaves a few taxa for us to include in our phylogeny!

10. Construct a phylogeny including all of the organisms from Table 1. Here are a few helpful hints:
● We already learned that Deuterostomia and Protostomia share a common ancestor and are
united in clade Bilateria. You just need to connect these two trees!
● Kingdom Animalia and Kingdom Fungi are more closely related to one another than either is
to Kingdom Plantae.
11. Indicate on the phylogeny above where the following characters, also known as synapomorphies,
appear by moving the circles below onto the associated node.

Bilateral symmetry

Pentaradial symmetry

Jaw

Four legs
Amniotic egg