GENZOO

DIVERSITY IN ANIMAL FORMS I. GENERAL ECOLOGICAL

• the diversity in appearance is mostly
superficial
• size and complexity of animals is limited by
their body plan
• symmetry, number and relative development
of tissue layers, presence and nature of body
cavities, and several aspects of early
development define the fundamental modes of
organization
CHARACTERISTICS
Sponges are:
• Sessile (not freely moving), benthic
(underwater)
• Filter feeders
• Competitors for space
• Fed upon by specialist predators
• Grow in many forms, solitary, colonial,
branching, as thin sheets over substrates
• From few cm to over 1 m in size
• Estimated in some cases to be several
hundred years old
II. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
PORIFERA BODY PLAN

PARAZOA: A CELLULAR LEVEL OF

ORGANIZATION
PORIFERA AND PLACOZOA
• lack clearly defined tissues and organs
• Epithelial cells – protect and enclose the
• specialized cells that integrate their activities sponge; contract and shorten moving the
sponge body lightly

PHYLUM PORIFERA • Their pores are actually the hollow insides of

phorocyte cells
- comprise the sponges
- 5000 -10000 spp.
- mostly marine, some freshwater, none
terrestrial
- classes are distinguished by skeletal
characteristics
•Pores aka ostia, provide openings for water,
which carries planktonic food and oxygen, to
enter the sponge body

THE CLASSIFICATION OF SPONGES IS

BASED ON SKELETAL MORPHOLOGY:

• The inner surface of the sponge is lined with

collar cells aka choanocytes which surrounds a
flagellum
• Flagella in the collar cells create a current of
water that moves into the ostia and out the
osculum.
• Water circulates through a sponge bringing in
tiny food particles.
• The fine tubes of the collar cells filter out the
food particles and take them into the cells for
digestion - filter feeders.
•Between the endo- and ecto- derm is a jellylike
material.
•There are also free-moving cells in this layer
called amoebocytes.
•During feeding, some of the particles taken in
by the collar cells are passed on to
amoebocytes, which carry them to other cells of
the sponge.
•Several kinds of amoebocytes serve special
functions, like producing the sponge skeleton,
digesting and transferring nutrients, or
reproducing themselves.
II. OTHER CHARACTERISTICS OF THE
PORIFERAN BODY PLAN
• No true muscular system
• Lacking sensory organs, nervous system
• Often amorphous and asymmetrical, no
anterior, posterior, oral surfaces
• No true tissues
• All physiological functions carried out at the
cellular level
• Freshwater sponges can produce a “resting”
stage called a gemmule.
III. METAZOAN-LIKE CHARACTERISTICS OF
SPONGES
A. 5 different principal cell types (20 total)
B. Complex reproduction
- Sponges can reproduce either asexually or
sexually.
- Asexual reproduction (without eggs and
sperm) often occurs by budding.
- Sponges also reproduce sexually when
specialized gametocyte cells produce sperm
and eggs.
- Sponges undergo synchronous spawning and
eject sperm and egg cells into the water. If
gametes (sex cells; either sperm or egg) from
the same species meet, they form a larval
sponge.
Unique but complex embryonic development,
with a hollow blastula stage but does not form a
gastrula
C. Other sponge metazoan homologies:
Epithelium
- pinacoderm: epithelial-like layer homologous
to animal epithelia with collagenous sublayer
- septate junctions (desmosomes) albeit
primitive and small (only Calcarea has full
“animal-like” desmosomes)
- extracellular matrix
- spongin is collagen-like molecule
- ubiquitin protein similarity
D. Other sponge metazoan homologies:
Regulation of Development
- True Hox genes are not found, but many
homologous
developmental transcription factors are
conserved
- Most of the developmental signaling pathways
(Wnt, Notch) and they are expressed along the
same embryonic “axis” in sponges (and
Cnidaria). Many of these signaling pathways
and transcription factors have not been found in
Protists.
E. Non-self-recognition
 - Feed ventrally by absorption of digested
material
- Lack organs but tissue-like outer walls (no
basement membrane)
- A bit more than 2000 cells
- Only 4 different cell types
- Smallest genome of all animals

Summary
- Sponges lack complexity, but their body plan
is ecologically and evolutionarily successful
- They should be considered metazoans since
they have fundamental characteristics of
multicellular animals;
PHYLUM CNIDARIA
- They are derived from flagellated protists but
• includes soft-bodied stinging animals such as
may be an early and now distant branch of the
corals, sea anemones, and jellyfish
metazoan
• found in many aquatic environments:
PHYLUM PLACOZOA
Sea anemones – cold arctic waters to
- 2-3 mm, 25 um- thick, resembling a large
the equator, from shallow tide pools to
amoeba the bottom of the deep ocean

- lacks anterior posterior polarity Jellyfish – surface of open oceans,

tropical fresh water lakes
- asexual reproduction is prevalent
Corals – shallow tropical waters, few
- the most primitive animal grow in deep cold ocean waters
Hydra spp – sea anemone-like
cnidarians, fresh water lakes and
streams
• size range from tiny, pinhead sized animals to
graceful giants with trailing tentacles several
meters long
CNIDARIAN: GENERAL BODY PLAN
• Cnidarians have a slightly more organized
body plan, and have tissues, but lack organs.
• Most cnidarians have two tissue layers.:
 - ectoderm, has cells that aid in
capturing food and cells that secrete
mucus
- endoderm, has cells that produce
digestive enzymes and break up food
particles
- jellylike material between the two
layers - mesoglea.
- these body layers surround a central
cavity called the gastrovascular cavity,
which extends into the hollow tentacles.
Cnidarians generally have radial symmetry.
Radial means arranged around a central axis.
• Because the tentacles of corals, jellyfish, and
sea anemones have this radial structure, they
can sting and capture food coming from any
direction.
TWO MAIN STRUCTURAL FORMS OF
CNIDARIANS
1. POLYP
- has a body shaped like a hollow cylinder or a
bag that opens and closes at the top
- tentacles form a ring around a small mouth at
the top of the bag. The mouth leads to a central
body cavity, the gastrovascular cavity
- attach to hard surfaces with their mouths up.
- they are sessile - can only capture food that
touches their tentacles.
- mesoglea layer is very thin
- corals and sea anemones are polyps.
2. MEDUSA
- Medusa bodies are shaped like an umbrella
with the mouth and tentacles hanging down in
the water.
- The mouth leads upward into the
gastrovascular cavity.
- Medusae (plural) are motile - they swim freely
in the ocean
- Their mesoglea is thick and makes up most of
their bulk.
- Jellyfish are medusae.
- Medusae come in many sizes - from 2.5-cm-
long box jellies to the lion’s mane jellyfish –
umbrella is over 2m across
CNIDOCYTES
• stinging cells called cnidocytes are unique to
cnidarians
• each cnidocyte cell has a long, coiled, tubular
harpoonlike structure, called a nematocyst
• When the nematocyst senses food either
through touch or chemoreception, it fires
outward, injecting venom through its tube into
the prey.
• each nematocyst can fire only once, but
cnidocytes grow new ones.
• cnidocyte structure is specific to different
species
FEEDING/ DEFENSE
• All cnidarians are carnivorous predators.
• Jellyfish capture small drifting animals with
their stinging cnidocyte-filled tentacles.
• Even the sessile coral polyps and sea
anemones are predators ready to sting prey,
grasp it in their tentacles, and push it into their
mouth.
• The potency of the stinging venom varies
among species. Some cnidarian venoms have
little effect on humans. Others are extremely
toxic.
• The venom of the Portuguese man-of-war
(Physalia physalis) is potent enough to inflict a
painful sting, even after it is washed up on the
beach.
CNIDARIAN: SKELETAL
CHARACTERISTICS
• Sea anemones and jellyfish have no skeletal
structure to support their soft tissues
• They fill the gastrovascular cavity with water
and close the mouth tight
• The water pressure supports the soft tissues.
This feature is called a hydrostatic skeleton.
• If the sea anemone opens its mouth or
contracts its body wall hard, the water flows out
and the body collapses.
• Coral polyps also have a hydrostatic
skeleton, but they are frequently sitting in a hard
skeleton made of the mineral limestone
(calcium carbonate or CaCO3). Coral reefs are
the aggregated limestone skeletons of many
coral polyps.
CNIDARIAN: ORGAN SYSTEMS
• Cnidarians lack organs, they do not have
respiratory or circulatory systems
• Like the cells in sponges, the cells in
cnidarians get oxygen directly from the water
surrounding them.
• Nutrients from digested food pass through the
liquid between the cells to nourish all parts of
the body, and wastes pass out by the same
route.
• They have a very simple nervous system
consisting of cells with long, thin fibers that
respond to mechanical or chemical stimuli. The
fibers connect, forming a network called a
nerve net.
• The nerves send impulses to muscle cells,
which respond by contracting.
CNIDARIAN: SENSORY SYSTEM
• The ability to respond to a stimulus of touch or
pressure is called mechanoreception. When
something touches the surface of the sea
anemone, the nerve cells send impulses to the
muscle cells in the body wall, the muscle cells
contract, and the anemone moves.
• Chemoreception is the ability to respond to
chemical stimuli. Chemoreception includes
taste and smell. Chemoreception is crucial to
finding and testing foods, detecting harmful
substances, and, in some organisms, selecting
and attracting mates and finding suitable places
to live.
• The ability to respond to changes in light
intensity is called photoreception. Most
cnidarians have the ability to sense changes in
light and dark. Box jellies have eyes that are
able to form images.
• Finally, most jellyfish also have a sensory
structure called a statocyst that is denser than
water. The gravitational pull on the statocyst
helps jellies tell which way is down.
CNIDARIAN: MOVEMENT
• To respond to stimuli, cnidarians use a
rudimentary muscular system consisting of
muscle cells lying in bands up and down the
body wall and in a circle around the mouth
cavity.
• The body shortens when the vertical bands
contract. If muscles on only one side contract,
the body bends in that direction. The mouth
closes when the circular muscle contracts.
• Many jellyfish are supported by an umbrella
shaped structure that is composed of a modified
layer of mesoglea.
• When a ring of muscles contracts, a jet of
water is forced out from under the umbrella,
moving the jellyfish forward.
• When the muscles relax, the stiff mesoglea
springs back to its original shape, and the
umbrella opens again.
• Alternating muscle contraction and relaxation
creates pulsating movements that propel the
jellyfish through the water.
REPRODUCTION
• Cnidarians reproduce both sexually and
asexually.
• Some species can produce both eggs and
sperm in the same organism – simultaneous
hermaphrodites and release gametes into the
ocean in egg-sperm bundles.
• Some species are also either male or female
and produce either eggs or sperm.
• Fertilization can happen externally in the water
column, but can also happen internally.
• Many coral species reproduce externally in a
process called broadcast spawning. These
species tend to have synchronous spawning
events - all individuals in the colony or area
release their gametes at the same time. This is
often triggered by environmental cues like full
moons, temperature, or chemical signals from
other individuals.
• In other cnidarians the male releases sperm
into the water, but fertilization happens inside
the body when sperm from a male colony
enters the female and fertilizes eggs internally.
This type of sexual reproduction is called
brooding, resulting in the release of a fully
formed larva.
• Following fertilization in broadcast spawning
cnidarians, the new organism grows into a larva
that swims by means of cilia.
• Because larvae cannot easily swim against
currents, they are classified as plankton,
organisms that drift.
• The larval stage is important in dispersing
sessile species like coral.
• Larvae can stay afloat for a long time, drifting
hundreds of miles from the parent, or they can
settle within hours after fertilization.
• An anemone or coral larva remains in the
water column until it can find a suitable habitat,
attach to a hard surface, and grow into a sessile
adult.
• Cnidarians can also reproduce asexually, by
budding or fragmentation.
• If many attached buds are produced, they can
form a large colony. This is the mode of
reproduction for which reef-building corals are
famous.
• Cnidarians can also replace lost or damaged
parts by regeneration. Damaged or lost
tentacles can often grow back. A small chunk of
detached tissue may even regenerate into an
entire new organism, as in the freshwater
anemone Hydra sp. Sea anemones can also
regenerate lost parts.
PHYLUM CTENOPHORA
• look similar to cnidarians but are actually not
part of the same phylum
• both ctenophores and cnidarians have similar
bodies with thin tissue layers enclosing a middle
layer of jellylike material
• these comb rows, called ctenes (ctene
meaning comb) is how the ctenophores get
their common name of comb jellies.
• consists of comb jellies
• exclusively marine
• Ctenophores have their mouth that occurs in
the oral pole of the body while the sensory
organ called statocyte is found in the aboral
pole. Statocyte identifies the gravity.
• Their excretion occurs through minute
apparatus called excretory pores.
• They have two tentacles for capturing prey.
• Their body surface contains eight bands
(ctenes) in equal distances. These are called
swimming plates.
• Each plate consists of transversely arranged
comb-like structures in rows.
• The comb-like structures consist of narrow
plates, fraying from the outer ends. The
constant movement of the frayed plates propels
the animal through the water.
• Ctenophores are hermaphrodites.
• The mature eggs and sperms are released to
the external environment through the mouth for
the fertilization.
• carnivorous, feeding on rotifers and small
crustaceans

INTRODUCTION TO WORMS
▸ Typically long, thin creatures that get around
efficiently without legs
▸ The different phyla of worms display a great
range in size, complexity, and body structure
▸ Flatworms (phylum Platyhelminthes) are • consists of simple worm-like animals called
simple animals that are slightly more complex flat worms
than a cnidarian.
• live on land, in fresh water, in the ocean, and
▸ Roundworms (phylum Nematoda) have a in or on other animals as parasites
slightly more complex body plan.
• parasitic/ free-living non-parasitic
▸ Segmented worms (phylum Annelida) are
the most complex animals with worm-like body
plans. FLATWORMS: GENERAL BODY PLAN
▸ invertebrate • more complex than cnidarians
▸ bilateral symmetry • have a middle layer of cells called mesoderm
– specializes into a muscular system
▸ definite anterior and posterior ends
• cells of the ecto- and endo-derm are also
▸ ventral surface – often closest to the ground
more organized than similar cells of cnidarians
▸ dorsal surface – facing the sky
▸ organs for sensing light, touch and smell are
concentrated in the heads
SIX FEATURES THAT REVEAL AN
EVOLVING COMPLEXITY IN THE BODY
STRUCTURE OF MOST WORMS
▸ a mesoderm, an intermediate body layer
between the inner (endoderm) and outer
(ectoderm) tissue layers that forms muscle
tissue FLATWORMS: DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

▸ a central nervous system guided by a “brain” • have a digestive system with only a single
opening into the digestive cavity
▸ an excretory system to eliminate some kinds
of waste products • these flatworms feed through a pharynx - a
long, tubular mouthpart that extends from the
▸ a complete digestive system, from an body, surrounds the food, and tears it into very
anterior mouth to a posterior anus fine pieces
▸ a coelom, a body cavity between the • cells lining the digestive cavity finish digesting
digestive tube and the external body wall that is the food. Then the dissolved nutrients move to
lined with tissue other cells of the body. Undigested food passes
▸ a circulatory system consisting of a series of back out through the mouth
tubes (vessels) filled with fluid (blood) to
transport dissolved nutrients, oxygen, and
waste products around the body rapidly and
efficiently
FLATWORMS: PHYLUM
PLATYHELMINTHES
FLATWORMS: NERVOUS SYSTEM
• A central nervous system consists of a mass
of nerve cells, called a ganglion in the anterior
part of the body, and a nerve cord extending
from the brain toward the posterior end of the FLATWORMS: CIRCULATORY SYSTEM
body
• Oxygen and nutrients are distributed to parts
• Sensory cells in the head detect changes in of the body by diffusion.
the environment. Sensory cells that respond to
light are clustered in eyespots in the head. • Flatworms get oxygen and nutrients to their
Sensory cells that detect water currents, solid body cells easily because all their cells are
objects, and chemicals are in two flap-like close to either their outer surface or their
projections on the head called auricles. digestive cavity.

FLATWORMS: EXCRETORY SYSTEM

• Flatworms have a surprisingly elaborate ROUNDWORMS: PHYLUM NEMATODA
system to rid the body of wastes.
• about 25,000 species described by scientists
• This network runs the length of the animal on
• found in almost every habitat on Earth
each side and opens to the outside through
small pores in the posterior region of the body.
• Connected to the tubes are tiny cells that
move wastes and water from the tissues into
the tubes.
• similarly abundant in marine and freshwater
sediments where they serve as important
predators, decomposers, and prey for other
species like crabs and snails
• free-living or a parasitic
• some are cryptobiotic - remain dormant for
decades until environmental conditions become
favorable
ROUNDWORMS: DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
• bilaterally symmetrical
• round cross-sectional body
• complete digestive system – has a mouth at
one end, a long tube with specialized parts in
the middle, and an anus at the other end
• as food moves along, it is broken into
molecules and absorbed by the cells lining the
tube. ROUNDWORMS: MUSCULAR SYSTEM
• muscles surrounding the tube push the food • Most worms have two bands of muscles:
along – peristalsis longitudinal muscles that run the length of the
body and circular muscles that form circular
bands around the body.
• nematodes only have longitudinal muscles
- can move only by contracting the long
ROUNDWORMS: BODY PLAN; muscles on either side of their body and
RESPIRATION wriggling forward
• nematodes are slender, and they are covered ROUNDWORMS: NERVOUS SYSTEM
by a protective cuticle - a waxy covering
secreted by the epidermis, or outermost cellular • their nervous system consists of a set of
tissue nerves that run the length of the body and
connect to anterior ganglia.
• gas exchange and waste excretion in
nematodes occurs by diffusion across the wall • Free-living nematodes are capable of sensing
of the gut light with ocelli, and most nematodes have fairly
complex chemosensory abilities.
• Although nematodes do have a space in the
body between the digestive tract and the body ROUNDWORMS: REPRODUCTION
wall, it is not lined with tissue and is not • Most nematodes are not hermaphrodites, but
considered to be a true coelom – are known as dioecious—having individuals of
pseudocoelomates separate sexes.
• Their chemosensory abilities are very helpful,
as they rely on pheromones to locate potential
mates.
SEGMENTED WORMS: PHYLUM ANNELIDA
• body is divided into repeating sections called
segments with many internal organs repeated in
each segment
• Earthworms are familiar terrestrial members of
this phylum and leeches are well-known
parasitic members of the phylum, most
commonly found in freshwater.
SEGMENTED WORMS: POLYCHAETE
• Polychaete annelid worms are so named
because most of their segments have bristles
called chatae or setae.
• The free-moving polychaetes have muscular
flaps called parapodia on their sides, and the
setae on these parapodia dig into the sand for
locomotion.
• Fireworms are a type of polychaete that have
earned their name from stinging bristles on
each parapodium.
• With their active lifestyle and good defenses,
free-moving polychaetes can make their living
in a variety of habitats such as mud, sand,
sponges, live corals, and algae.
SEGMENTED WORMS: EVOLVED BODY
FEATURES
• annelids have a mesoderm with muscle, a
central nervous system, and an excretory
system more complex than in flatworms or
nematodes
• also evolved body features similar in larger,
more complex animals:
1. a coelom, a body cavity between the
digestive tube and the external body
wall that is lined with tissue
• coelom - a fluid-filled cavity lying
between the digestive tube and the
outer body tube and surrounded by
mesodermal tissue
2. a circulatory system consisting of a
series of tubes (vessels) filled with fluid
(blood) to transport dissolved nutrients,
oxygen, and waste products rapidly and
efficiently

• Tubeworms - sessile polychaetes

• live in tubes that they build by secreting the
tube material.
• The tubes, attached to rocks or embedded in
SEGMENTED WORMS: MOVEMENT
sand or mud, may be leathery, calcareous, or
sand-covered depending on the worm species • In the body wall of the annelids are two types
of muscles: circular and longitudinal.
• feed by extending tentacles from the tube
• use their parapodia to create currents of water
that flow through the tubes to aid in respiration
and help clean the tubes
• free-living or mobile polychaete worms have a
proboscis that can extend from their mouths to
catch prey
• this is a feeding organ that is often armed with
small teeth or jaws on its tip.
• When the circular muscles contract, the
segment gets longer and narrower.
• When the longitudinal muscles contract, the
segment gets shorter and fatter
SEGMENTED WORMS: CIRCULATORY
SYSTEM
• have a closed circulatory system in which
blood is pumped along by muscles in blood
vessels
• Blood flows through capillaries, picking up
food molecules from the digestive tract and
oxygen from the skin and transporting them to
the cells of the body
• The parapodia increase the surface area of
the skin for respiration.
• Nerves also extend from the brain around the
digestive tube and along the ventral surface.
• A ganglion or cluster of nerve cells operates
the organs in each segment.
SEGMENTED WORMS: EXCRETORY
SYSTEM
• Their excretory system consists of a pair of
small tubes in each segment called nephridia
and are open at both ends.
• They filter coelomic fluid, which contains
useful nutrient molecules along with waste
molecules.
• useful molecules return to the coelom, and
waste molecules pass into the water

SEGMENTED WORMS: NERVOUS SYSTEM

• have a simple brain consisting of a pair of
nerve clusters in the head
• Nerves link the brain to sensory organs in the
head that detect the environment in front of the
worm.
• Earthworms are eyeless, but polychaete
annelids have eyes that can distinguish
between light and dark.