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Phylum : Chordata
• notochord (back rod)
• Supportive to dorsal, tubular nerve cord
• pharyngeal slits for filter feeding/ gill respiration
• postanal tail for propulsion

• E.g. Amphioxus (Cephalochordata)

tentacles

mouth
© Asanka Jayasinghe 105 © Asanka Jayasinghe 106

Subphylum: Cephalochordata
Subphylum Urochordata (lancelets)
(Tunicata) • slender, laterally compressed, translucent
(“tail-chordates”) animals
• about 3000 sp • 5 - 7 cm in length
• All marine - from near shoreline to • inhabit sandy bottoms of coastal waters
great depths • generic name Amphioxus (both ends are
• Mostly sessile sharp)
• usually tough, nonliving tunic, or • Approx. 26 species
test, surrounds the animal
• adults are highly specialized
• only the microscopic tadpole-like
larva bears all chordate features
© Asanka Jayasinghe 107 © Asanka Jayasinghe 108

Subphylum : Vertebrata / Craniata

• Muscular, perforated pharynx with or without gills
• have a cranium (bony or cartilaginous braincase)
• anterior end of nerve cord enlarged to form a brain
• Most have vertebrae.
• Segmented muscles in an unsegmented trunk

• A cartilaginous or bony endoskeleton

• closed circulatory system
• Integument with two divisions
– Ventral heart with 2-4 chambers
– Outer epidermis - stratified epithelium from
ectoderm – dorsal and ventral blood vessels
– inner dermis - connective tissue from mesoderm
• Complete digestive system
• Skin modifications with glands, scales, feathers, – with large digestive glands, liver, and pancreas
claws, horns, and hair
© Asanka Jayasinghe 109 © Asanka Jayasinghe 110

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• Well-developed coelom filled with the visceral Superclass: Agnatha (without jaw)
systems
(Cyclostomata):
• Excretory system with paired kidneys
Hagfishes and lampreys
• Without true jaws
• Endocrine system of ductless glands scattered
through the body • Without paired appendages.

• separate sexes
– each with paired gonads
– ducts to discharge products into the cloaca or
special openings near the anus

© Asanka Jayasinghe 111 © Asanka Jayasinghe 112

Class Myxini (with slime): • completely blind

hagfishes. • Not parasitic but are scavengers and predators.
• entirely marine • feeds on dead or dying fishes, annelids, molluscs, and
• Terminal mouth with four pairs of tentacles crustaceans.
• buccal funnel absent • attracted to food, by smell and
• nasal sac with duct to pharynx touch.
• 5 -15 pairs of gill pouches – pore-like openings – Attach by means of toothed
• Lack scales, and paired fins plates
• eel-like body form. – Thrusts tongue forward to
rasp off pieces
– For extra leverage, often ties
a knot in its tail
© Asanka Jayasinghe 113 – then passes the knot forward
© Asanka Jayasinghe 114

• generate enormous quantities of slime Class: Cephalaspidomorphi (shield-like head)

• 3 accessory hearts behind the gills
lampreys
• partially hermaphroditic
[Petromyzon (stone sucking)]
– Both male and female gonads in each
• Marine and freshwater
– but only one gonad becomes functional
• Suctorial mouth with horny teeth
– Produce small numbers of 2- 7 cm large, yolky
eggs • nasal sac not connected to mouth
– no larval stage • 7 pairs of gill pouches.
• Grasping a stone with its mouth to hold position in
flowing water
• Parasitic

© Asanka Jayasinghe 115 © Asanka Jayasinghe 116

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• Males are nest building

Superclass: Gnathostomata (mouth with jaw)
• Adults die soon after spawning.
jawed fishes, and all tetrapods.

• With jaws
• Paired appendages.

cartilaginous support for the velar skeleton of lamprey

expanded forward in the mouth

© Asanka Jayasinghe 117

perhaps to force more water over the gills to be filtered
© Asanka Jayasinghe 118

Class: Chondrichthyes (cartilage fish) • There are riverine shark species in bigger rivers
sharks, skates, rays, chimaeras • Ex:
• Mostly marine • Glyphis sp
• Cartilaginous skeleton – Ganges shark in Ganges river, India
• teeth not fused to jaws and usually replaced – poorly known to science
• powerful jaws – critically endangered
• 5 – 7 gills with separate openings – Considered truly riverine
• well-developed sense organs, – Might grow up to 2m
• no operculum • Bull shark Carcharhinus leucas
• No swim bladder. – known to travel long distances into freshwater
• predaceous systems and may co-exist in the same waters as
the Ganges shark
© Asanka Jayasinghe 119 © Asanka Jayasinghe 120

Class: Sarcopterygii (fleshy fin)

Class: Actinopterygii (ray-finned)
lobe-finned bony fishes/ lungfishes
ray-finned Bony fishes
• Ossified skeleton
• Ossified skeleton
• single gill opening covered by operculum
• single gill opening covered by operculum
• paired fins with internal skeleton -used like four legs
• paired fins supported primarily by dermal rays
• musculature within the limb
• limb musculature within body
• heavy, enameled scales
• Some have swim bladder as a hydrostatic organ
• Powerful jaws
• tail usually homocercal
• diphercercal tail
• Skin with mucous glands and embedded
• Lunglike swim bladder.
dermal scales
• Some hibernate in mud without water for long periods
• only 7 sp. (6 lungfishes and the coelacanth)
© Asanka Jayasinghe 121 © Asanka Jayasinghe 122

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Class: Amphibia (double life) • 3-chambered heart

Frogs, salamanders – double circulation
• Tetrapods • paired mesonephric kidneys
• Ectothermic – urea as nitrogenous waste
• respiration by lungs, gills, or skin • Ten pairs of cranial nerves
• Moist skin containing mucous • Separate sexes
glands, – Fertilization internal or external
• lacking scales – Metamorphosis - development through larval
• usually large Mouth with small teeth stages
• two nostrils open into anterior part – predominantly oviparous
of mouth cavity – moderately yolky eggs with jellylike membrane
coverings
© Asanka Jayasinghe 123 © Asanka Jayasinghe 124

Order: Gymnophiona (naked snake) • Small eyes – just to sense light

/ Apoda (legless) – covered by skin for protection
Caecilians • pair of tentacles, between eyes
and nostrils
• about 160 species
• Feed on earth worms and small
• elongate, limbless, burrowing creatures
invertebrates
• Live in tropical forests
• many vertebrae, long ribs
• Skin has numerous ring-shaped folds, or annuli
• Terminal anus
• toxin glands to deter predators
• male has a protrusible copulatory
• strong skull, with a pointed snout organ.
• Bones reduced in number and fused
• mouth is recessed under the head
© Asanka Jayasinghe 125 © Asanka Jayasinghe 126

• Internal Fertilization Order: Caudata (having a tail) / Urodela

– Eggs deposited in moist ground near water Salamanders
– some species guard eggs • tailed amphibians
– Some show Viviparity - embryos obtaining • about 360 sp.
nourishment by eating the wall of oviduct
• Found mainly in temperate regions
– gilled eel like larvae crawl into water to complete
• Mostly < 15 cm
metamorphosis.
• Japanese giant salamander reach 1.5 m
• 3 species in Sri Lanka
• limbs set at right angles to the body
• genus Ichthyophis
– Equally sized forelimbs and hindlimbs
• All are endemic
– Rudimentary in some aquatic and burrowing
• In wet and intermediate zones
forms
© Asanka Jayasinghe 127 © Asanka Jayasinghe 128

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• carnivorous - on worms, small arthropods, and

molluscs
• Terrestrial adults live in moist places
• internal fertilization
– Male deposit packet of sperm (spermatophore) on
a leaf • aquatic larva having external gills and a finlike tail.
– female picks up them • Terrestrial species bypass larval stage
– eggs in small, grapelike clusters
– Many species guard the eggs • Some have complex life cycles
– aquatic larvae metamorphose
– to form terrestrial juveniles (red eft)
– after 1-3 yrs metamorphose again to aquatic,
© Asanka Jayasinghe 129
breeding adults © Asanka Jayasinghe 130

• Paedomorphosis - some species reach sexual Order: Anura (without tail) /

maturity while retaining their gills, aquatic lifestyle, Salientia (leaping)
and other larval characteristics
Frogs and Toads
• > 3450 species
• can regenerate entire limbs and parts of major
organs • most familiar amphibians
• occupy a great variety of habitats
• absence of tails in adults
• all pass through a tailed larval stage
• Specialized for jumping
• No Paedomorphosis
• Species with 1 – 30 cm long from
© Asanka Jayasinghe 131
tip of nose to anus © Asanka Jayasinghe 132

• Aquatic, terrestrial and arboreal life styles • Usually defenseless

• Dividing as frogs and toads is generic – Many in the tropics and
subtropics are aggressive
– jumping and biting at predators
– Some defend by feigning death
– Most can inflate lungs so that
difficult to be swallowed
– Leaping violently is best
protection
– at the same time voiding its
urine
– Use poison glands to deter
© Asanka Jayasinghe 133 predators © Asanka Jayasinghe 134

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• most males have vocal sacs • Muscular, eversible, sticky tongue to catch insects
– flexible membrane of skin • Teeth to hold captured prey.
– open to the mouth cavity with two
slits on either side of the tongue
• To call
– Inflates lungs and shuts nose and
mouth
– Air expelled from lungs, through the
larynx, into the vocal sac
– vibrations of larynx emits a sound
– resonates within the vocal sac
– amplification of mating call
© Asanka Jayasinghe 135 © Asanka Jayasinghe 136

• Most are solitary until breeding season.

• Life cycle
• Males make noises to attract female
– Amplexus - females enter the water and are
clasped by the males
– As female lays eggs, male discharges sperm over
the eggs
– After fertilization, jelly layers absorb water and
swell
– Eggs in large masses anchored to vegetation
– then abandoned by parents

© Asanka Jayasinghe 137 © Asanka Jayasinghe 138

• Larva (tadpole) having a • Some show parental care

– long, finned tail, – Female marsupial frog carries
– both internal and external gills, developing larvae in a dorsal
– no legs, pouch.
– specialized mouthparts for herbivorous feeding
– Male poison-dart frog carries
tadpoles adhering to its back

– male Darwin’s frog develop into

froglets in its vocal pouch.

© Asanka Jayasinghe 139 © Asanka Jayasinghe 140

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• tree frogs Class: Reptilia (creeping)

– Waterproof – secrete waxes or lipids Turtles, snakes, lizards, crocodiles
from skin
• No longer tied to water.
– expanded pads on fingers and toes
– No shell-less eggs
– relatively slender, have large heads
– No gill-breathing larvae
and eyes, long limbs and long toes
• nearly 7000 species
– “Flying frogs” – Webbed hands and
feet to glide, or parachute down • Marine, freshwater and terrestrial
– deposit eggs on leaves overhanging • Ectothermic tetrapods
water – tadpoles drop into water – thermoregulate behaviorally
– Laying eggs within water-filled holes • embryo develops within shelled egg
in the tree trunk, or water-filled
plants © Asanka Jayasinghe 141 © Asanka Jayasinghe 142

• Extra-embryonic membranes to support • Dry skin

– amnion – encloses a fluid-filled cavity
– Allantois – respiratory surface and storage of
nitrogenous wastes
– Chorion – freely pass oxygen and carbon dioxide.
• porous, leathery shell.
– tough against desiccation and physical injury.
– lacking mucous glands
– covered by horny epidermal scales
– thin epidermis, shed periodically

© Asanka Jayasinghe 143 © Asanka Jayasinghe 144

• Paired Limbs, with five toes, • 3 – 4 chambered heart

– Adapted for climbing, running, or – one pair of aortic arches
paddling – Separate systemic and pulmonary circuits
• Skeleton well ossified
– ribs with sternum complete a thoracic
cage
– skull with one occipital condyle
• Respiration by lungs
– no gills
– some use cloaca
– branchial arches in embryo

© Asanka Jayasinghe 145 © Asanka Jayasinghe 146

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• Metanephric kidney (paired) Subclass: Anapsida (without arch)

– uric acid as nitrogenous waste • skull with no temporal opening.
• Nervous system - optic lobes on the dorsal side of brain
– 12 pairs of cranial nerves

• Sexes separate turtles

• fertilization internal
- Copulatory organs evagination mammals
of the cloacal wall.
Other reptiles,
birds

© Asanka Jayasinghe 147 © Asanka Jayasinghe 148

Order: Testudines / Chelonia • Scutes are horny

plates made of
Tortoise, turtles, terrapins,
keratin
crocodile snappers • vertebrae and ribs
• About 330 species. fused to overlying
• Body in a bony case carapace
– dorsal carapace and • cannot expand its
– ventral plastron chest to breathe
• jaws with tough horny beaks instead of – Air is drawn
teeth inward by
contracting limb
• tongue not extensible
muscles to make
• neck usually retractable Dermal Bony plates the body cavity
scutes above below
© Asanka Jayasinghe 149 © Asanka Jayasinghe larger 150

– Exhalation - • Sound perception is poor and most are mute

shoulder girdle • a good sense of smell and color vision.
is drawn back • Oviparous
into the shell
compressing the • Internal fertilization
viscera and • bury shelled, amniotic eggs in the ground.
forcing air out of • in some families, nest temperature determines sex of
the lungs the hatchlings.
– low temperatures - males
– high temperatures - females.

Dermal scutes Bony plates

© Asanka Jayasinghe 151 © Asanka Jayasinghe 152
above below

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Subclass: Diapsida
• in Sri Lanka, five marine turtles,
• skull with two pairs of temporal
• three fresh water turtles (terrapins) openings
– Melanochelys trijuga
(Black Turtle, gal ibba) Order: Squamata
– Lissemys punctata
Lizards, Snakes
(Flapshell Turtle, kiri ibba)
• about 95% of all living reptiles.
– Trachemys scripta (introduced sp.)
• kinetic skull
(Red -eared Slider, Rathu Kan Ibba)
– loss of dermal bone ventral
posterior to the lower temporal
• & one land tortoise opening
– Geochelone elegans – movable joints
(Star Tortoise, Taraka© Asanka
ibba) Jayasinghe 153 – seize and manipulate bigger
© Asanka prey.
Jayasinghe 154

kinetic skull Suborder: Lacertilia / Sauria

Lizards
• Slender Body
• four limbs
• rami of lower jaw fused
• Eyelids movable
• external ear present
• about 3300 species.

© Asanka Jayasinghe 155 © Asanka Jayasinghe 156

• Skinks
• extremely diverse
– elongate bodies and reduced
– terrestrial, burrowing, aquatic, arboreal
limbs
• Geckos
• Chameleons
– small, agile, mostly nocturnal
– Arboreal
– adhesive toe pads enable them to walk
– sticky-tipped eversible tongue
upside down
• Iguanas
• Glass lizards are completely
• often brightly colored
limbless.
• with ornamental crests, frills, and throat
fans

© Asanka Jayasinghe 157 © Asanka Jayasinghe 158

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• Jesus Christ lizard –

• have successfully invaded hot and arid
– can run on water
regions
– long toes of rear feet with
• Keep body temperature relatively
fringes of skin
constant by behavioral thermoregulation.
– can burrow down in the sand
• Flying dragon –
• Gecko males are strongly vocal
– can glide from tree to tree
– to announce territory
– flaps of skin on sides of body
– Discourage approach of other males
• Autotomy / self-amputation
– Shed its own tail
– to distract the predator
– regenerate the lost body part later
© Asanka Jayasinghe 159 © Asanka Jayasinghe 160

Suborder: Serpentes (creeping)

Suborder: Amphisbaenia (double walking types)
Snakes
worm lizards • Approx. 2300 species.
• Elongate Body of nearly uniform diameter • Body elongate
• No legs or with short front legs • No limbs - lack both pectoral and pelvic
• Skull not kinetic for burrowing girdles
• Limb girdles vestigial • No ear openings and middle ear
• eyes hidden beneath skin • mandibles joined anteriorly by ligaments
• only one lung • highly kinetic skull
• about 135 species. • Vertebrates shorter and wider
• eyelids fused into transparent spectacle
• relatively poor vision
© Asanka Jayasinghe 161 © Asanka Jayasinghe 162

• totally deaf
– sensitive to low-frequency vibrations conducted
through the ground.
• left lung reduced or absent

• tongue forked and protrusible

• pit vipers possess pit organs
• pair of pitlike Jacobson’s organs in the mouth roof
– heat-sensitive
– lined with an olfactory epithelium
– between their nostrils and eyes
– forked tongue flicked through air
– distinguish temperature differences <0.003°C
– picks up scent particles
– track warm-blooded prey
– drawn past Jacobson’s organs
– aim strikes in total darkness
– Information is transmitted to the brain
© Asanka Jayasinghe 163 © Asanka Jayasinghe 164

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• pair of maxillary teeth, – Fangs are long, curved and pointed.

modified as fangs – On the basis of structure and position, three
– usually larger than the types
ordinary teeth
– lie in a membranous sheath
– Erects as the mouth opens
– either grooved or perforated
by a canal for the passage of
the duct of the poison gland
– driven into prey by the
thrust
– venom is injected into the
wound © Asanka Jayasinghe 165 © Asanka Jayasinghe 166

• (a) Solenoglyphous (solen = pipe +

glyph = hollowed):
– In Viperidae (vipers and rattle
snakes)
– regenerate by one of the small
reserve fangs at its base
– capable of being rotated through a
considerable angle,
– and move nearly horizontal position
to a nearly vertical position
– When horizontal lies along the roof
of the mouth embedded in folds of
the mucous membrane
© Asanka Jayasinghe 167 © Asanka Jayasinghe 168

(b) Opisthoglyphous (opistho = behind): (d) Aglyphous:

• family Colubridae eg: rat snake • Fangs are lacking,
• one or more of the posterior maxillary teeth grooved • non-poisonous.
along its posterior border. • kill their prey by constriction or by
• more or less poisonous and poison is weak. biting and swallowing.

(c) Proteroglyphous (protero = first): • Most are oviparous

• In sea snakes, krait, cobras • remainder, are ovoviviparous
• fangs (anterior maxillary teeth) are small, – Giving birth to well-formed
• permanently erect young.
• grooved along its anterior face. • Very few are viviparous
• able to store sperm
– can lay several clutches
© Asanka Jayasinghe 169 © Asanka Jayasinghe 170

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• Diverse in habit and habitat • Water snakes , (subfamily

• Flying snake/ paradise snake (pol-mal- Natricinae), spend a semiaquatic life.
karawala, mal sara) – feed in or near water
– can glide from tree to tree – some leave aquatic environments
– Use ribs to become flat, and whip body in a fast, only to bask in the sun or breed
rhythmic S-shape – stout bodies with strongly keeled
scales and triangular heads.
– some are viviparous and thus give
birth to live young
– principal diet is fish and
amphibians

© Asanka Jayasinghe 171 © Asanka Jayasinghe 172

– When handled, habitually defecate Order: Sphenodonta (wedge tooth)

– or excrete a foul-smelling substance from their Tuatara
anal scent glands
• Primitive diapsid skull
– Nonvenomous
• vertebrae biconcave
– but generally ill-tempered and bite freely.
• quadrate immovable
• median parietal eye present
• Ex. genus Sphenodon (two species).

© Asanka Jayasinghe 173 © Asanka Jayasinghe 174

Superorder Archosauria (ruling lizard) Order: Crocodilia

Crocodiles, Mesozoic dinosaurs, birds Crocodile, alligator,
• Advanced diapsids Caiman, gharial
• teeth set in sockets (thecodont) • 25 species.
• mostly terrestrial • Skull elongate and massive
• some specialized for flight • massive jaw musculature
• includes provide
– all extinct dinosaurs, – a wide gape
– extinct crocodilian relatives, – rapid, powerful closure.
– and pterosaurs. • quadrate immovable
• nares terminal
© Asanka Jayasinghe 175 © Asanka Jayasinghe 176

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• Like in mammals, secondary • Alligators are less aggressive

palate present – able to make definite vocalizations
– Allows to breathe while – Male emit loud bellows in the mating
mouth is full season.

• Teeth are set in sockets • crocodiles have longer, V-shaped snouts

• vertebrae usually concave in front • alligators have shorter, U-shaped snouts
• forelimbs - five digits; hindlimbs - four digits
• four-chambered heart • alligator’s upper jaw is wider
• Can grow > 1000 kg – teeth on lower jaw are hidden
• advanced social behavior – upper jaw has small sockets on the
inside for lower jaw teeth
© Asanka Jayasinghe 177 © Asanka Jayasinghe 178

• Dermal Pressure Receptors • Oviparous

– detecting small pressure changes in water
– Help locate and capture prey
– On face of alligator
– On entire body of crocodile
• Lingual Salt-Glands in mouth
– Only in crocodiles
– modified saliva glands
– excrete large amounts of salt
– crocodile can tolerate more salty water than an
alligator
© Asanka Jayasinghe
– 20 to 50 eggs
– laid in a mass of dead vegetation.
• mother hears vocalizations from hatching young
– Open nest to allow them to escape
– Take hatching by mouth into water
• incubation temperature determines the sex
– low nest temperatures produce only females,
(opposite to turtles)
179 © Asanka Jayasinghe 180

Class: Aves (birds) • Feather

• most noticeable,
– most melodious, and
– most beautiful vertebrates.
• More than 9000 sp
– far outnumber all other vertebrates except fishes
• Endothermic vertebrates
• body covered with feathers, scales on feet.
• Front limbs modified for flight
• tail not elongate
• neck disproportionately long for balancing and food
gathering © Asanka Jayasinghe 181 © Asanka Jayasinghe 182

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Contour feathers for tail and flight.

• Quill or calamus, emerging from a skin follicle Semiplume feathers help water birds float
• hollow, Filoplume found around the tail and flight
• The barbules of one barb overlap the barbules of a feathers. Give sense when the flight feathers
need to be maintained.
neighboring barb
Bristle feathers are found around the eyes and
• Held together by tiny hooks. nostrils for protection
• If adjoining barbs become separated, they are Downy feathers for warmth
instantly zipped together again by preening with
their bill.

© Asanka Jayasinghe 183 © Asanka Jayasinghe 184

• Feather develops from

epidermis. Nourishment
from dermal core
• feather bud rolls into a
cylinder and sinks into the
follicle
• At the end hardened by
keratin
• The protective sheath splits
apart, allowing the end of
the feather to protrude and
the barbs to unfold.

© Asanka Jayasinghe 185 © Asanka Jayasinghe 186

Wing types
• During growth, pigments (lipochromes and melanin)
are added to epidermal cells. • Elliptical Wings – to
maneuver in forested
• fully grown feather is a dead structure.
habitats,
• Shedding, is a orderly process
– low aspect ratio
– Flight and tail feathers lost in exact pairs, so that (length to average
balance is maintained. width)
– Replacements emerge before that – slotting prevent stalling
– many water birds (ducks, geese) lose all primary during sharp turns,
feathers at once low-speed flight, and
– grounded in safe places during the molt. frequent landing and
• Nearly all birds molt at least once a year, usually after takeoff.
nesting season.
© Asanka Jayasinghe 187 © Asanka Jayasinghe 188

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• High-Speed Wings – reduce “tip vortex” a drag-creating turbulence

– For Birds that feed during that tends to develop at wing tips at faster speeds.
flight or that make long – Aerodynamically efficient for high-speed flight
migrations, – but cannot easily go airborne at low speeds.
– moderately high aspect
ratio
– rather flat in section
– wings sweep back and
taper to a slender tip
– lack wing-tip slotting

© Asanka Jayasinghe 189 © Asanka Jayasinghe 190

• Soaring Wings • High-Lift Wings

– For Oceanic soaring – For predators that
birds to reach high carry heavy loads
speed, and high lift, – with slotting, alulas,
– high-aspect ratio wings and pronounced
– lack wing slots camber (slight
– highest aerodynamic convexity)
efficiency – high lift at low speed
– less maneuverable
– exploit the highly
reliable sea winds

© Asanka Jayasinghe 191 © Asanka Jayasinghe 192

• foot with 4 toes (2 or 3 in some) • posterior limbs variously adapted for perching, walking,
• The 5th toe lost completely in most swimming (paddling, floating), catching prey, wading on
– may remain as a defensive spur in birds like chickens mud and running fast.

© Asanka Jayasinghe 193 © Asanka Jayasinghe 194

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• thin integument of epidermis and • Beak shows the food habit

dermis
– no sweat glands
– oil or preen gland (Uropygial gland)
at base of tail
• pinna of ear rudimentary
– single bone in middle ear
• each jaw covered with a horny sheath,
– forming a beak
– No teeth

© Asanka Jayasinghe 195 © Asanka Jayasinghe 196

• light, yet sturdy, skeleton as a structural • sternum well developed with keel or reduced with no
requirement for flight keel
• pneumatized bones - laced with air • ribs with strengthening processes - short in walking
cavities. birds and long in diving species
• Skull bones fused with one occipital
condyle
– The braincase and orbits are large for
supporting quick motor coordination
and superior vision

© Asanka Jayasinghe 197 © Asanka Jayasinghe 198

• Respiration by slightly expansible lungs • Two full

– with 9 thin air sacs among the visceral organs and respiratory cycles
skeleton are required to
– even extend by tiny tubes into the centers of the move the air
long bones through the
system

© Asanka Jayasinghe 199 © Asanka Jayasinghe 200

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• efficient digestive system

• syrinx (voice box) near junction of trachea and
– digest fast
bronchi
– poorly developed Salivary
glands - secrete mucus for
lubricating food and slender,
horn-covered tongue.
The pessulus is a – few taste buds
delicate bar of cartilage
connecting the dorsal – long, muscular, elastic
and ventral extremities esophagus
of the first pair of
bronchial cartilages in – Crop - Enlargement at the
the syrinx of birds.
end serves as a storage
chamber.
– proventriculus, secretes gastric
juice
© Asanka Jayasinghe 201 © Asanka Jayasinghe 202

• foods that require grinding are reduced in the • four-chambered

muscular gizzard. heart
• To assist grinding, grain-eating birds swallow gritty • separation of
objects or pebbles respiratory and
• form pellets of indigestible materials (bones, fur etc.) systemic
in the proventriculus and eject through the mouth. circulations
• paired ceca in herbivorous birds serve as • right aortic arch
fermentation chambers. • nucleated red
• cloaca also receives genital ducts and ureters. blood cells
• extremely fast
heartbeat
• Lesser body
weight faster
© Asanka Jayasinghe 203 heart rate © Asanka Jayasinghe 204

• large paired metanephric kidneys • Marine birds

– Composed of many thousands of nephrons excreting large
– each consisting of a renal corpuscle and a nephric loads of salt from
tubule. blood by salt
glands
– Uric acid is produced
• Concentrated up
– combined with fecal material in the cloaca. to twice the
– Excess water is reabsorbed in the cloaca concentration of
– resulting in formation of a white paste. seawater.
• runs out the
internal or
external nostrils
• perpetual runny
© Asanka Jayasinghe 205 nose. © Asanka Jayasinghe 206

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• Nervous system well • social creatures

developed, with brain and 12 – Especially during breeding season, sea birds gather
pairs of cranial nerves in enormous colonies
• optic lobes well developed – Land birds seek isolation for rearing their brood.
• cerebrum has enlarged – But same species may aggregate for migration or
– Principal integrative center feeding.
controlling eating, singing, • Togetherness give
flying, and all complex – Mutual protection from enemies
instinctive reproductive
activities. – greater ease in finding mate
– Less chance for individual straying
– Mass huddling against low night temperatures

© Asanka Jayasinghe 207 © Asanka Jayasinghe 208

• testes are tiny during most of the year and enlarge in • Different Mating Systems
breeding season
• Monogamy - mates with only one partner each
• sperm are stored in a seminal vesicle breeding season
• lack a penis – More than 90% are monogamous.
– copulation by bringing cloacal surfaces into contact – In a few species such as swans and geese, partners
• Some copulate in flight are chosen for life
• only the left ovary and oviduct develop – ability of both sexes to provide parental care,
• Fertilization occurs in the upper oviduct
• several hours after special glands add albumin to • Polygamy - mates with two or more partners each
eggs while passing down the oviduct breeding period
– farther down, shell membrane, shell, and shell
pigments are secreted
© Asanka Jayasinghe 209 © Asanka Jayasinghe 210

• Parental care
• In pigeons, doves, and some parrots the crop
– Most build nests
produces “milk” by
– eggs are incubated by one or both parents
– breakdown of epithelial cells
– Newly hatched birds are of two types:
– First few days get regurgitated crop milk from
1. precocial e.g. fowl, ducks, and most water both parents.
birds,
– rich in fat and protein
– covered with down feathers
– can run or swim just after hatching when
their plumage is dry
2. altricial e.g.
– naked and helpless at birth
– remain in the nest for a week or more
– Parents must feed constantly
© Asanka Jayasinghe 211 © Asanka Jayasinghe 212

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• distributed over nearly the entire
earth
– Forests, deserts, mountains,
– and on all oceans.
– Some species in North Pole and
South Pole.
– Some live in total darkness in
caves, finding their way by
echolocation
– Some dive to depths greater
than 45 m to prey on aquatic life
© Asanka Jayasinghe
• Ancestor is pelycosaur with synapsid skull
© Asanka Jayasinghe
© Asanka Jayasinghe
2022-06-24
Class: Mammalia (mamma = breast) mammals.
• possessing mammary glands for nourishing
the newborn
• body more or less covered with hair
• Endothermic
• well-developed neo-cerebrum
– top layer of the cerebral hemispheres
• highly developed placenta for feeding an
embryo
• occupy almost every environment
• about 4600 species
• diverse in size, shape, form, and function
213 © Asanka Jayasinghe 214
• increased jaw musculature
• lower jaw a single enlarged bone (dentary)
• Skull with two occipital condyles
• secondary bony palate
– breathe while holding prey or chewing
– permitting young to breathe while suckling
• Diphyodont dentition,
– teeth are replaced only once (deciduous and
permanent teeth)
• sweat and sebaceous glands
– to lubricate the hair and
– promote heat loss.
215 © Asanka Jayasinghe 216
• hair grows from a hair follicle
– epidermal structure sunk into the dermis
– grows continuously by rapid proliferation of cells
in a follicle
– Growing part die after packed with fibrous
protein, keratin
217 © Asanka Jayasinghe 218
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2 kinds

(1) dense and soft underhair for

• In most mammals there are periodic molts of the
insulation entire coat.
(2) coarse and longer guard hair for • two annual molts,
protection and coloration. – Summer coats are thinner than winter coats
Underhair traps a layer of insulating air • Vibrissae, (“whiskers,”)
so dense in aquatic mammals and – sensory hairs provide a tactile sense
impossible to wet – long in nocturnal and burrowing animals

© Asanka Jayasinghe 219 © Asanka Jayasinghe 220

• Movable eyelids • Circulatory system

• fleshy external ears (pinnae) – four-chambered heart
• seven cervical vertebrae – Persistent left aorta
• pelvic bones fused – nonnucleated, biconcave
• Four limbs adapted for many forms of locomotion red Blood corpuscles

• lungs with alveoli

• Voice box (larynx)
• muscular diaphragm
separates thoracic and
abdominal cavities

© Asanka Jayasinghe 221 © Asanka Jayasinghe 222

• Separate sexes – Antlers of the deer

– Internal fertilization
– embryos develop in a uterus with placental
attachment
– Fetal membranes (amnion, chorion, allantois)
• horns or hornlike structures
– True horns, in ruminants (cattle)
– sheaths of keratinized epidermis around core of
bone arising from the skull
– not normally shed and not branched
– grow continuously
– found in both sexes
© Asanka Jayasinghe
– branched and composed of solid bone
when mature
– develop beneath a covering of highly
vascular soft skin called “velvet”
– growth is complete just before the
breeding season
– blood vessels constrict and deer tears
off the velvet by rubbing against trees
– shed after the breeding season
– New buds appear a few months later
223 © Asanka Jayasinghe 224

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– Rhinoceros horn
– Hair-like keratinized filaments
– arise from dermal papillae
– cemented together
– Not attached to the skull.

© Asanka Jayasinghe 225

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