Encyclopedia > Bilateria

  Article Content

Bilateria

The Bilateria are those animals which have a body composed of three different germ layers, called the endoderm[?], mesoderm, and ectoderm[?]. These animals are also called triploblastic.

Basically, the Bilateria include all animals that are (more or less) bilaterally symmetrical and, except for a few flatworms, have an internal body cavity (coelom or pseudocoelom) with a mouth at one end and an anus at the other. The Bilateria include the majority of animals, with the cnidarians and sponges being the principal exceptions.

The two divisions of the Bilateria are Deuterostomes (echinoderms, chordates, hemichordates, Chaetognatha and Vetulicolia) and Protostomes (arthropods, annelid worms, molluscs and many more groups). They are distinguished by how the coelom develops, in particular whether the first body opening to form in larval growth becomes the anus (deuterostomes) or mouth (protostomes). Another distinguishing characteristic is how the third set of cells to form after egg fertilization orient themselves during cleavage. Protostomes have spiral cleavage, while deuterstomes have radial cleavage.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
Bullying

... power, from the Greek language turannos. In Classical Antiquity[?] it did not always have inherently negative implications, it merely designated anyone who assumed ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 38.9 ms