Course Code: ZOO-402
Credit Hours: 2(2+0)
M WAQAS KHAN
Week 01
Week 02 + 03 Midterm/Sessional Week 10
(Monday, 15 November 2021)
Week 11 +12
Week 04 + 05
Week 13 +14
Week 06
Week 07
Week 15 +16
Week 07
Week 08 + 09
Terminal Exams Week 17
(Monday, 10 January 2022)
VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY
“the remains or relics of animals with backbones”
• Have spent half a billion years of Backbones
• Evolved about 540 MYA
• About 52,000 species of vertebrates
• Subphylum of the Phylum Chordata
a) Notochord b) Dorsal nervous system c) postnatal tail d) Gills slits
• Closely related to Urochordates & Cephalochordates
HYPOTHETICAL
PHYLOGENY
OF CHORDATES
EARLY CHORDATE EVOLUTION
▪ Tunicates, Subphylum Urochordata:
• Early Cambrian period to recent
• Belongs to deepest lineage of chordates
• Resemble chordates during their larvae stage
• Probably does not reflect that of the ancestral chordate
Salpidae indet
Bear Gulch Limestone
▪ Lancelets , Subphylum Cephalochordata Mississippian (320 MYA)
• Early Cambrian period to recent
• Naked for their bladelike shape
• Retain characteristics of chordate body plan as adults
• Gene expression hold clues to the evolution of the
vertebrate form
Pikaia Fossils
EARLY CHORDATE EVOLUTION
▪ Evolution of Craniates:
▪ Evolved 530 MYA during Cambrian explosion
▪ Haikouella:
• 1999 in southern China
• the primitive fossils of craniate
• 3 cm long body
• Had brain & eyes but lacked skull
▪ Haikouichthys
• More advanced chordate fossils
• Had skull & considered true craniate
EARLY CHORDATE EVOLUTION
▪ Hagfishes, Class Myxini
▪ Evolved in late Cambrian Period that occurred 500 million years ago
▪ Least derived craniate lineage that still survive
▪ Jawless marine craniates
▪ Have cartilaginous skull & axial cord
▪ Lack vertebrae
EVOLUTION OF VERTEBRATES
▪ During Cambrian Period:
• Craniates evolved into vertebrates
• Have vertebral column, skull & fin ray
▪ Lampreys, class Cephalaspidomorphi
▪ Evolved about 450 million years ago
▪ Oldest lineage of vertebrates
▪ Lives in Marine & Freshwater
▪ Cartilage surrounding the notochord
FOSSILS OF EARLY VERTEBRATES
▪ Conodonts:
▪ With mineralized skeletal elements in their mouth & pharynx
▪ from the Late Cambrian (approximately 500 million years ago) to the Late
Triassic (about 200 million years ago).
▪ extinct group of animals believed to be distantly
related to the living hagfish
FOSSILS OF EARLY VERTEBRATES
▪ Ostracoderms
▪ 1st vertebrate's fossil
▪ Ordovician to Devonian period
▪ Found in the North America & European Strata
▪ Armored, jawless vertebrates
▪ Have defensive plates of bone on their skin
ORIGIN OF BONE & TEETH
▪ Mineralization have originated with mouth body parts
▪ Endoskeleton became fully mineralized later
▪ Gnathostomes:
▪ Arose approximately 370 million years ago in the early or middle Devonian
▪ Vertebrates with jaws
▪ Extensively mineralized endoskeleton
▪ Placoderm:
▪ Extinct lineage of armored vertebrates
ORIGIN OF BONE & TEETH
▪ Acanthodians:
▪ Vertebrated with jaws
▪ Radiate during Devonian period
▪ Closely related to the ancestors of ostiechthyans
CHONDRICHTHYES
▪ Have skeleton composed of cartilage
▪ End of Devonian to Recent
▪ Evolved secondary from an ancestral mineralized skeleton
▪ Includes the sharks, rays & ratfishes etc.
OSTEICHTHYES
▪ Have bony skeleton
▪ Have swim bladder & operculum
▪ Appeared in the late Silurian, about 419 million years ago
TETRAPODS
▪ Have limbs & feet with digits
▪ Ears for detecting airborne sound
▪ Some lobe-fins evolved into limbs & feet
▪ Evolved about 400 million years ago in
the Devonian Period
ANAMNIOTIC TETRAPODS
▪ Class Amphibia
Tetrapods
▪ 4,800 species
▪ Carboniferous; Mississippian (354) to Recent
▪ Have moist skin that complement the lungs
in gas exchange
Salamanders
1) Order Urodela (Salamanders)
2) Order Anura (Frogs & toads)
3) Order Apoda (Caecilians)
AMNIOTIC TETRAPODS
▪ Class Reptilia:
▪ Have extraembryonic membranes including amnion to protect egg
▪ Have terrestrial adaptation
▪ The Origin & Evolution Radiation of Reptiles:
▪ Evolved in Carboniferous period
▪ Oldest reptilian fossil is 300 million years old
▪ Parareptiles:
• 1st major group of reptiles
• Mostly large herbivores
CLASS REPTILIA
▪ Diapsids:
• Were most diversifying group
• Have two lineages:
1) Lepidosaurs (Snake, lizard & Tuatara etc)
2) Archosaurs (Crocodile, Dinosaurs & Birds)
LEPIDOSAURS
1. Lizard
• Late carboniferous period about 320–310 million years ago
2. Tuatara
• Triassic period around 250 million years ago
3. Turtles
• Around 230 million years ago during the Triassic Period
4. Snakes
• Early Cretaceous period (around 128.5 million years ago)
ARCHOSAURS Dimetrodon
1. Dinosaurs
• Dimetrodon, Edaphosaurus & Mesosaurus etc
• between about 245 and 66 million years ago
• Mesozoic Era into three periods: the Triassic, Jurassic Edaphosaurus
and Cretaceous
2. Crocodiles & Alligators
• Lineage dates to late Triassic period
3. Birds
Mesosaurus
ORIGIN OF BIRDS
▪ Descended from theropods (small carnivore dinosaurs)
▪ Evolved about 150 MYA
▪ Archaeopteryx:
- Remains the oldest bird known
ORIGIN OF MAMMALS
▪ More than 5,000 species
▪ Evolved from synapsid in the late Triassic period
▪ But most living mammals originated in the Jurassic Period
1) Monotremes (echidnas & the platypus)
2) Marsupials (Opossums, Kangaroos & Koalas)
3) Eutherians (Placental Mammals)
EUTHERIANS (PLACENTAL MAMMALS)
▪ Order Primates:
▪ Lemures, Tarsiers, Monkeys & Apes
▪ Humans are the member of the ape group
▪ Old world monkey evolved in Africa & Asia about 25 MYA
▪ New world monkey evolved in South America about 30-35 MYA
▪ Hominoids evolved from Old World Monkey about 20-25 MYA
▪ Homo sapiens is about 160,000 years
