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Feeding:
Balanoglossus is a ciliary feeder. The lateral cilia of gill-bars maintain a constant
respiratory current drawing water into the pharynx through the mouth and to the
outside through the outer gill slits. Food particles are caught up in mucus secreted by
epidermal glands of proboscis and passed backwards by cilia to the mouth. The food
particles are collected in the oesophagus and digested in the intestine. Undigested
materials pass through the anus opening to the exterior.
2-Write on the circulatory system of Balanoglossus.
Circulatory system:
The circulatory system consists
of spaces communicating with large
dorsal and ventral blood vessels
(open type).The dorsal blood vessel
dilates to form the venous sinus
and passes into the so called heart.
The heart is non-contractile and
above it lies cardiac sac.
The front end of the heart forms a series of glomeruli, covered by a region of proboscis Coelom.
These glomeruli form excretory cells, the nephrocytes. The glomeruli send dorsal and ventral
arteries to the proboscis. The blood is collected from the proboscis by a dorsal vein which connects
the venous sinus. The dorsal vessel is connected to the ventral one through two peribuccal vessels.
The ventral vessel sends small branches to the gill septa and tongue bars in the pharyngeal region.
Collecting vessels from these organs carry the oxygenated blood to the dorsal vessel. The blood
flows forward in the dorsal vessel and backward in the ventral vessel (resembles that in the
invertebrates). The blood is usually colorless and contains a few amoebocytes.
3-Write on body wall, coelomic cavities & stomochord of Balanoglossus.
Body wall:
The body wall of is composed of epidermis, nervous layer,
basement membrane and muscles. The epidermis consists of ciliated
columnar cells, sensory cells and gland cells. Below the epidermis is
a nerve plexus receiving the inner processes of receptor cells. The
smooth muscles are arranged in two layers, the outer circular muscle
fibers and the inner longitudinal fibers.
Coelom:
There are five separated cavities
including a single cavity in the
Proboscis (protocoel) , a pair of coelomic
cavities in the collar (mesocoel) and a pair
of coelomic cavities in the trunk (metacoel).
The protocoel and mesocel open to the
exterior by mid-dorsal pores. However, the
metacoels are closed cavities.
Stomochord:
The dorsal wall of the buccal cavity gives off an
anterior diverticulum. The wall of this diverticulum
is thick, composed of vacuolated cells and bears
a certain resemblance to the notochord. However,
the stomochord is tubular, lies anterior to the
alimentary canal and not surrounded by a fibrous
sheath.
4-Discuss the affinities of hemichordates.
1-Affinities with phylum Chordata:
Resemblances Differences
1-external Gill-slits -Gill-slits are dorsally located
features -Tail is absent.
2-skin -ciliated epidermis and dermis is absent
3-coelom -open to the exterior
4-stomochord dorsal & contains vacuolated cell hollow, without sheath & lies anterior to gut.
Test or tunic:
-The test is thick.
-It is composed of a clear &
contains cells, nerve fibres,
blood vessels and calcareous
spicules.
-The matrix is composed of tunicine
(like cellulose), proteins and inorganic materials.
-The blood vessels in the test end by resptratory
ampullae.
Body wall:
It consists of skin and underlying muscles:
1-The skin: consists of two layers:
a-The epidermis consists of a flat ectodermal cells & is surrounded by the test..
b-The dermis consists of a vascular connective tissue layer.
2-The muscle layer:
The muscles are arranged in longitudinal and circular layers.
Blood circulation:
Blood circulation differs according to the direction of the
contraction of the heart (periodic reverse of blood flow):
a- When the heart contracts in a dorso-ventrally: the blood flows to the ventral vessel,
transverse vessels (oxygenation), dorsal vessel, viscero-branchial vessel
and finally it flows back to the heart through the cardio-visceral vessel.
b- When the contractions of the heart take the opposite direction: The current of the blood is reversed.
9-Discuss the metamorphosis of tunicate larva.
Metamorphosis:
-The larva is composed of an oval body and a
long tail containing notochord.
-The nervous system is a dorsal tube enlarged
anteriorly to form brain containing otocyst and
eye spot.
Retrogressive Metamorphosis:
-The complete disappearance of the tail, nerve cord and notochord.
-The disappearance of the eye and otocyst
-The reduction of the brain to form nerve ganglion and subneural gland.
progressive changes:
- gradual increase of size.in number.
-The gill-slits increased
-The body rotates carrying the mouth to a position opposite to the base of the animal.
10-Write on the affinities of urochordates.
Differences:
Tunicates are: 1-sedentary. 2- hermaphrodite, 3- having heart. 4- with a thick test.
Adults without : 1-coelom. 2-nerve cord. 3-notochord.
2-Specialized features:
i-They are sedentary. ii-The body is covered with a thick test. iii-Absence of coelom.
iv-periodic reverse of blood flow. v-The retrogressive metamorphosis.
11-Describe the digestive system & feeding mechanism in Branchiostoma.
Digestive system: It comprises:
1-The mouth:
It is surrounded by oral hood and oral
cirri which form a sieve to prevent
the entry of large particles.
2-The buccal cavity:
The lining ectoderm is folded to form the
wheel organ. The Hatschek’s pit secretes
mucus. The vertical velum contains a circular
entrostome which is surrounded by12 velar
tentacles.
3-The pharynx:
The lateral walls of pharynx are perforated by gill-slits.
The primary and secondary gill bars are interconnected
by horizontal synapticula.
The floor of the pharynx contains mucus-secreting endostyle.The frontal
cilia of th gill bars produce an upward current, driving the mucus from the
endostyle into the dorsal epipharyngeal band.
4-The oesophagus: It is a narrow tube.
5-The mid-gut: It is a tubular part from which a large hollow mid-gut diverticulum arises.
6-The hind-gut: It is a tubular organ which opens out by the anus.
Feeding:
Branchiostoma is a ciliary feeder. The water current enters the pharynx via mouth, buccal cavity and entrostome
and passes through the gill-slits into the atrium to leave via the atriopore. The endostyle secrete abundant mucus.
The latter is sent up the gill-bars by their frontal cilia. Food particles move upwards to the epipharyngeal groove
then into the oesophagus. Large food particles left in the pharynx are sent into the epipharyngeal groove by the
cilia of the peripharyngeal bands. The food is carried back through the oesophagus and midgut by ciliary action.
The digestive secretions are produced by the mid-gut diverticulum.
12-Give an account of circulatory system of Branchiostoma.
Circulatory system:
It is a closed system. The heart and respiratory
pigments are absent. The principal blood vessels include:
1-The ventral aorta:
-It lies beneath the endostyle. Blood flows forwards
by rhythmical contraction of the ventral aorta.
-The ventral aorta gives off paired afferent branchial
arteries to the primary gill bars.
-Each afferent branchial artery possesses a contractile
dilation, which assists in the blood circulation.
-The afferent branchial arteries leave the gill bars
asefferent branchial arteries and open into 2 lateral dorsal aortae.
2-The lateral dorsal aortae:
The blood flows backwards in the lateral dorsal aortae. Behind the pharynx the two
lateral dorsal aortae unite to form a median dorsal aorta.The latter sends some
arteries to the intestine and extends in the tail as a caudal artery.
Blood of Branchiostoma is colourless and lacks corpuscles. The main function of blood is the transport of
food and it plays very little part in the transport of oxygen.
13-Give an account of the nervous and excretory systems of Branchiostoma.
Nervous system:
The nervous system consists of a dorsal hollow nerve
cord lying above the notochord. In cross section, the
nerve cord is triangular in shape. Anteriorly, the nerve cord
terminates at the level of the first myotome, behind the anterior
end of the notochord. The nerve cord encloses
throughout its length a narrow cavity the neurocoel. At the
anterior end, the central canal is usually dilated to form the
cerebral vesicle without any change in the external diameter
of the cord. Thus, no brain is differentiated in Branchiostoma.
The peripheral nervous system consists of two pairs of cerebral nerves and a segmental series of paired spinal
nerves. The cerebral nerves carry sensory impulses to the nerve cord, hence, they are sensory in nature.
In each segment there are a pair of dorsal roots and a pair of ventral roots. The ventral root ispurely motor nerve.
It innervates the adjacent myotomes. The dorsal root is mixed in nature. It divides into two branches; a dorsal
sensory branch from the skin and a ventral mixed one runs to the ventral muscle of the atrial and gut walls.
Excretory system:
The excretory system resembles that of invertebrates in having 90 pairs of
nephridia arranged segmentally over the dorso-lateral walls of the pharynx.
Each nephridium consists of a small bent tube, the excretory canal with
vertical and horizontal limbs. These nephridia lie between the atrium and
the dorsal coelomic canals.
The two limbs bear flame cells (solenocytes) on its anterior surface.
The vertical limb ends blindly while the horizontal limb has on its ventral
surface a small aperture , the nephridiopore which opens into the
atrium. The solenocytes are connected with body of nephridium by
short tubules. From the cell body arises a flagellum that extends
through the tubule and projects freely into the lumen of the
nephridium. The flame cells collect waste products from coelom.
In addition, there is a pair of excretory brown funnels lying dorsal to the pharynx.
.
14-Give an account of the skeletal system & locomotion in Branchiostoma.
Skeleton:
The Branchiostoma has no exoskeleton. Endoskeleton includes
notochord,Gelatinous rods supporting gill bars and fin rays supporting fins.
a-The notochord:
The notochord is composed of a series of flattened muscular plates
surrounded by a fibrous sheath. Each plate develops as a highly
vacuolated cell, the nuclei being later pushed aside to the dorsal or
ventral sides.
b-Gelatinous rods:
They are formed of agglutinated elastic fibres.
These rods support the gill bars, oral cirri and
the free edge of oral hoods.
c-Fin rays:
The fin rays support the dorsal and ventral fins.
The dorsal fin is supported by a single row while
the ventral fin is supported by two rows.
Locomotion:
Locomotion takes place by lateral undulation of the body.
A wave of contraction starts in the myotomes of the anterior
end on one side and and passes posteriorly. Before this
Contraction reaches the posterior end another one starts
At the front end of the opposite side.
15-Give an account of the coelomic cavities and body wall Branchiostoma.
Coelom: 4
Brnchiostoma possesses a true 1
coelom filled with coelomic fluid.