Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Tunicates

Thanks to Miriam Goldstein at the Oyster's Garter for writing this delightful post on tunicates; it's entertaining, information-rich, and downright sassy. What more could you want when reading about our closest relatives among the invertebrates?
You mean our closest relatives don't have a face or even a head? If you want to read more about the details that support the assertion that vertebrates and urochordates are sister taxa (and you should), PZ Myers at Pharyngula gives a great explanation about the evidence supplied by developmental genetics. And you can find out what a pharyngula really is; it's more than a blog. There's even a link to his previous post about the Hemichordata, so you can read more about the other non-Echinoderm deuterostome phylum.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

loved the link...her writing is so feisty. those pictures of tunicates taking over mussels were cool but im sure the mussel industry don't like it very much.

helen said...

Invasive tunicates are a definite problem in Maine for mussel aquaculture. A subject along these lines would be ideal for a student project.