GENERAL CHARACTERS OF

CEPHALOCHORDATA
CLASS – B.Sc. PART – II
PAPER – III(HONS.) & II(SUBSI.)

BY
KUNDAN PATEL
GUEST FACULTY,
DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY,
B.N. COLLEGE, PATNA
INTRODUCTION
In Greek, ‘Kephale’ means ‘head
and ‘khorde’ means ‘chord’.
Cephalochordates are the animals
containing notochord forward beyond
the brain. It is represented by Lancelets,
also known as Amphioxus. These have
more chordate characters compared to
hemichordates or urochordates.
GENERAL CHARACTERS
● They are small, eel-like marine animals
● These are sedentary in habit, no appendages
● Body measures 50-75 mm in length
● Persistent notochord extends forward
beyond the brain, hence the name
● Epidermis is single-layered
● They do not have exoskeleton
● A low continuous dorsal and caudal fin; no
paired fins
GENERAL CHARACTERS
● Muscles and gonads are metamerically
arranged
● Large pharynx with numerous gill-slits, open
into the atrium, function in filter-feeding
● Oral hood, buccal cirri, velum and velar
tentacles act as filtering apparatus
● Respiration occurs through gills
● Closed circulatory system
● No heart and respiratory pigment
 GENERAL CHARACTERS
● No hepatic portal system
● Excretory organs are protonephridia with
solenocytes, derived from ectoderm
● Reduced brain and sense organs; two pairs of
cerebral and several pairs of nerves are
present
● Sexes are separate
● Fertilization is external
● No asexual reproduction
● They are deuterosome and enterocoelomate
GENERAL CHARACTERS
GENERAL CHARACTERS
CONCLUSION
We can conclude that cephalochordates
are more like chordates in having
characters like notochord, dorsal hollow
nerve chord, endostyle, pharynx and
post-anal tail. Placed under
protochordata, these represent an
important intermediary step in evolution
of chordates. How slow and steady
advanced characters developed in
animals can be better understood
through study of these animals.
REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Chordate Zoology - E.L. Jordan

and Dr. P.S. Verma
2. Vertebrates - R.L. Kotpal
3. A textbook of Zoology(Vol.II) - Parker and
Haswell
4. Biology of Animals(Vol.II) - Sinha, Adhikari
and Ganguli
THANK YOU