Craniata

Craniata

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IUCN Red List Status: NOT EVALUATED external link Showing: scientific names

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Craniata

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Larus argentatus
Phoca vitulina
Bufo viridis
Contia tenuis
Giraffa camelopardalis
Connochaetes taurinus
Mirounga leonina (Linnaeus, 1758)
Gopherus agassizii
Graptemys barbouri

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Introduction

Source and Additional Information
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Tree of Life Web Project external link
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Some rights reserved external link
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Philippe Janvier external link
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The Craniata, or craniates, include all animals having a skull (or cranium, hence their name), be it cartilaginous or bony. A skull is a box of hard tissues which encloses the brain, olfactory organs, eyes, and internal ear. Craniates comprise all fishes - including such jawless fishes as hagfishes and lampreys - amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, including Man. The earliest known undisputed craniates are jawless fishes which lived 480 millions years ago. Their evolutionary history took place first in the sea, then in fresh waters. Some craniates, the tetrapods or four-legged vertebrates, became terrestrial and arose about 370 millions years ago from fish ancestors. Now, the majority of the craniate species are represented by one group of fish, the actinopterygians, and the tetrapods. Other craniate groups (jawless fishes, sharks and chimeras, the coelacanth, lungfishes) are considerably depauperate, by comparison with their past diversity.

"Craniata". Encyclopedia of Life, available from "http://www.eol.org/pages/3014422". Accessed 21 Mar 2010.