REFERAT

„Vertebrate animals
and
invertebrate animals”

Vertebrate, also called Craniata, any animal of the subphylum Vertebrata, the predominant

subphylum of the phylum Chordata. They have backbones, from which they derive their
name. The vertebrates are also characterized by a muscular system consisting primarily of
bilaterally paired masses and a central nervous system partly enclosed within the backbone.

The subphylum is one of the best known of all groups of animals. Its members include the
classes Agnatha,Chondrichthyes,and Osteichthyes (all
fishes); Amphibia (amphibians); Reptilia (reptiles); Aves (birds); and Mammalia (mammals).
General features

Although the vertebral column is perhaps the most obvious vertebrate feature, it was not
present in the first vertebrates, which probably had only a notochord. The vertebrate has a
distinct head, with a differentiated tubular brain and three pairs of sense organs (nasal, optic,
and otic). The body is divided into trunk and tail regions. The presence of pharyngeal slits
with gills indicates a relatively high metabolic rate. A well-developed notochord enclosed in
perichordal connective tissue, with a tubular spinal cord in a connective tissue canal above it,
is flanked by a number of segmented muscle masses. A sensory ganglion develops on the
dorsal root of the spinal nerve, and segmental autonomic ganglia grow below the notochord.
The trunk region is filled with a large, bilateral body cavity (coelom) with contained viscera,
and this coelom extends anteriorly into the visceral arches. A digestive system consists of
an esophagus extending from the pharynx to the stomach and a gut from the stomach to
the anus. A distinct heart, anteroventral to the liver, is enclosed in a pericardial sac. A basic
pattern of closed circulatory vessels is largely preserved in most living forms. Unique,
bilateral kidneys lie retroperitoneally (dorsal to the main body cavity) and serve blood
maintenance and excretory functions. Reproductive organs are formed from tissue adjacent to
the kidneys; this original close association is attested by the tubular connections seen in males
of living forms. The ducts of the excretory organs open through the body wall into a cloacal
chamber, as does the anus of the digestive tract. Reproductive cells are shed through nearby
abdominal pores or through special ducts. A muscular tail continues the axial musculature of
the trunk.

Approximately 45,000 living species constitute the vertebrates. Species of several classes are

found from the high Arctic or Antarctic to the tropics around the Earth; they are missing only
from interior Antarctica and Greenland and from the North Polar ice pack. In size, vertebrates
range from minute fishes to elephants and whales (of up to 100 tons), the largest animals ever
to have existed. Vertebrates are adapted to life underground, on the surface, and in the air.
They feed upon plants, invertebrate animals, and one another. Vertebrate faunas are important
to humans for food and recreation.
The tetrapods

The tetrapods live primarily on land and are rather similar in habit. Members include
the amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Amphibians are widespread in the warmer parts
of the continents, being absent only in the far north and in the Antarctic. Three orders are
recognized: Candata (the salamanders), the frogs and toads (Anura, or Salientia), and
the Apoda or Gymnophiona (caecilians). Modification takes many forms, from the moist
glandular skin (some scale remnants persist in apodans) to the loss of many of the bones of
the skull. Like their ancestors, amphibians are cold-blooded and tend to be aquatic or limited
to moist surroundings. Salamanders are seemingly the least modified in body form. They do
not actively pursue prey and at best are only marginal swimmers. In swimming or crawling,
the salamander’s body and tail undulate. Frogs and toads hop using hind-limb propulsion and
the forelimbs as body props. This dominance of the hind limb in locomotion is best seen in
swimming when the forelimbs are drawn back against the body. In contrast to the salamanders
and frogs, the burrowing, wormlike apodans are without limbs.

The digestive system

The digestive system of the vertebrate is distinctive in its structure but not in its function. The
mouth and pharynx can be considered as parts of this system; the latter as an expanded cavity
in the head is unmatched in any other group. The stomach and gut have been discussed above.

Presumably the original condition of the digestive glands was that of a ventral diverticulum
which may have received the food mass into its cavity. This diverticulum, matched by the
diverticulum seen in the amphioxus or the “intestine” of the tunicate, produced the secretions
(bilelike and enzymes) of both liver and pancreas. Through time, the liver gradually
differentiated from the pancreas. The size and separation of the liver from the gut suggest its
separate blood and metabolic activities. The most obvious by-product of the liver, bile,
necessitated the formation of a gall bladder and a duct connection with the gut. The pancreas,
in contrast, continued to produce digestive enzymes, but its secretory cells were no longer in
direct contact with the food mass. Because the pancreas was only a partial source of intestinal
digestive enzymes, it was sometimes reduced in size and enclosed in the gut wall itself
(agnaths) or dispersed as tiny bits of tissue in the mesentary supporting the gut
(actinopterygians).
The excretory system

The excretory system is unique in its nephrons, which filter the blood in the glomeruli and
remove a variety of wastes from the body through selective secretion and reabsorption. In
the shark or the coelacanth Latimeria, urea is used to raise the osmotic pressure of the blood
to that of the marine habitat, thus saving these organisms considerable metabolic energy.
The large intestine (sometimes centred in a rectal gland) acts as an auxiliary excretory organ,
as do also the gills of fishes or the sweat glands of mammals.
Respiration and gas exchange

Respiration, like excretion, involves specialized body structures, such as lungs or gills, but
also can involve other areas, such as the skin itself. Respiration involves exchange of gases
both between the body of the organism and the environment and between the blood system
and the body tissues. It also involves cellular respiration where oxygen is used and carbon
dioxide is produced. There is nothing characteristic of the vertebrate in this functional area;
even the hemoglobin of the blood is suggested in the respiratory pigments of other animals.
The circulatory system
The circulatory system of vertebrates is closed in that fluids course through vessels, but there
is free movement of cells in and out of blood. Some leukocyte (white blood cell) movement
out of the capillaries and fluid leakage are observed in all tissues. Blood tissues are distinctive
in the range of specialized cells, although these vary in detail among animals. The immune
function of the blood is best developed in the vertebrate.

The endocrine system

The endocrine system is characterized by its separate organs. The occurrence of a pituitary or
a thyroid gland is suggestive of the evolutionary change and specialization that took place
within this group. The relatively unspecialized nature of some parts of this system is seen in
certain scattered cells in the gut wall or even the clumps of islet cells of the pancreas.
Evolution and paleontology
The knowledge of vertebrates as revealed by fossils has grown rapidly during the past few
decades, but there is much still to be discovered. The ancestral vertebrate (protovertebrate)
has been sought for more than 100 years, and the likelihood of finding it today is not much
greater than in the past. It can be assumed that the protovertebrate was small and soft-bodied,
two factors that suggest the improbability of finding a fossilized form in a recognizable
condition. There are Cambrian fossils that have been suggested to be fossil cephalochordates
and there are scales of agnath fishes, but the first type of fossil is too simple and the second
already too complex to explain the transition.

Invertebrates are animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly

known as a backbone or spine), derived from the notochord. This includes all animals apart
from the chordate subphylum Vertebrata.Familiar examples of invertebrates
include arthropods (insects, arachnids, crustaceans,
and myriapods), mollusks (chitons, snails, bivalves, squids,
and octopuses), annelid (earthworms and leeches), and cnidarians (hydras, jellyfishes, sea
anemones, and corals).

The majority of animal species are invertebrates; one estimate puts the figure at 97%. Many
invertebrate taxa have a greater number and variety of species than the entire subphylum of

Some so-called invertebrates, such as the Tunicata and Cephalochordata, are more closely

related to vertebrates than to other invertebrates. This makes the invertebrates paraphyletic, so
the term has little meaning in taxonomy.

Characteristics
The trait that is common to all invertebrates is the absence of a vertebral column (backbone):
this creates a distinction between invertebrates and vertebrates. The distinction is one of
convenience only; it is not based on any clear biologically homologous trait, any more than
the common trait of having wings functionally unites insects, bats, and birds, or than not
having wings unites tortoises, snails and sponges. Being animals, invertebrates are
heterotrophs, and require sustenance in the form of the consumption of other organisms. With
a few exceptions, such as the Porifera, invertebrates generally have bodies composed of
differentiated tissues. There is also typically a digestive chamber with one or two openings to
the exterior.

Morphology and symmetry

The body plans of most multicellular organisms exhibit some form of symmetry, whether

radial, bilateral, or spherical. A minority, however, exhibit no symmetry. One example of
asymmetric invertebrates includes all gastropod species. This is easily seen in snails and sea
snails, which have helical shells. Slugs appear externally symmetrical, but
their pneumostome (breathing hole) is located on the right side. Other gastropods develop
external asymmetry, such as Glaucus atlanticus that develops asymmetrical cerata as they
mature. The origin of gastropod asymmetry is a subject of scientific debate.

Other examples of asymmetry are found in fiddler crabs and hermit crabs. They often have
one claw much larger than the other. If a male fiddler loses its large claw, it will grow another
on the opposite side after moulting. Sessile animals such as sponges are
asymmetrical alongside coral colonies (with the exception of the individual polyps that
exhibit radial symmetry); alpheidae claws that lack pincers; and
some copepods, polyopisthocotyleans, and monogeneans which parasitize by attachment or
residency within the gill chamber of their fish hosts).

Nervous system

Neurons differ in invertebrates from mammalian cells. Invertebrates cells fire in response to

similar stimuli as mammals, such as tissue trauma, high temperature, or changes in pH. The
first invertebrate in which a neuron cell was identified was the medicinal leech, Hirudo
medicinalis.

Learning and memory using nociceptors in the sea hare, Aplysia has been described. Mollusk
neurons are able to detect increasing pressures and tissue trauma.
Neurons have been identified in a wide range of invertebrate species, including annelids,
molluscs, nematodes and arthropods.

Respiratory system

Tracheal system of dissected cockroach. The largest tracheae run across the width of the body
of the cockroach and are horizontal in this image. Scale bar, 2 mm.

One type of invertebrate respiratory system is the open respiratory system composed

of spiracles, tracheae, and tracheoles that terrestrial arthropods have to
transport metabolic gases to and from tissues.[22] The distribution of spiracles can vary greatly
among the many orders of insects, but in general each segment of the body can have only one
pair of spiracles, each of which connects to an atrium and has a relatively large tracheal tube
behind it. The tracheae are invaginations of the cuticular exoskeleton that branch
(anastomose) throughout the body with diameters from only a few micrometres up to 0.8 mm.
The smallest tubes, tracheoles, penetrate cells and serve as sites
of diffusion for water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. Gas may be conducted through the
respiratory system by means of active ventilation or passive diffusion. Unlike vertebrates,
insects do not generally carry oxygen in their haemolymph.[23]

A tracheal tube may contain ridge-like circumferential rings of taenidia in

various geometries such as loops or helices. In the head, thorax, or abdomen, tracheae may
also be connected to air sacs. Many insects, such as grasshoppers and bees, which actively
pump the air sacs in their abdomen, are able to control the flow of air through their body. In
some aquatic insects, the tracheae exchange gas through the body wall directly, in the form of
a gill, or function essentially as normal, via a plastron. Note that despite being internal, the
tracheae of arthropods are shed during moulting (ecdysis).

Reproduction

Like vertebrates, most invertebrates reproduce at least partly through sexual reproduction.

They produce specialized reproductive cells that undergo meiosis to produce smaller,
motile spermatozoa or larger, non-motile ova. These fuse to form zygotes, which develop into
new individuals. Others are capable of asexual reproduction, or sometimes, both methods of
reproduction.