1
Then, one of those early deuterostomes became the very first chordate by gaining a notochord.
2
Over time, the chordate body plan gradually changed.
3
The larva of the invertebrate chordate Ciona intestinalis possesses only 36 striated muscle cells and lacks body segmentation.
4
In other words, we are vertebrates, which are a form of chordate, which are themselves a form of deuterostome.
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Here we review the gene repertoire of Fads and Elovl in chordate genomes and the diversity of substrate specificities acquired during evolution.
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Our results suggest that a duplication of a mono-CRD galectin gene gave rise to an original bi-CRD galectin gene, before or early in chordate evolution.
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It is worth noting that this means that we ourselves are chordates.
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The largest chordates are also the largest animals known to have existed: blue whales.
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But the question of exactly where those first chordates came from has long proved controversial.
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A sequence of duplication and divergence events of the different galectins in chordates is proposed.
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A few living chordates still retain the ancient backbone-free condition where the notochord offers support.
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Chordata All the animals pictured here are chordates.
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There are over 64,000 living species, and many more known fossil chordates.
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They belong in a more inclusive category called the chordates, which incorporates vertebrates and a few vertebrate-like groups.
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Finally, cross-species comparisons between Ciona and the mouse evoke the deep evolutionary origins of cardiopharyngeal networks in chordates.
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With the availability of an increasing number of whole genome sequences in chordates, exhaustive comparisons of multigene families become feasible.