Left: A mirrored right lateral view of Daphnia magna, courtesy of www.splash.org Right: A right lateral view of a fairy shrimp, courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service The Branchiopoda consist of four living groups: the Anostraca ("fairy shrimp" or "sea monkeys"), Notostraca ("tadpole shrimp")...
commonly known as mayflies. They are considered to be part of the clade Uniramia which includes silverfish and dragonflies, among others. Ephemeroptera and Odonata are the only extant orders of winged insects in the infraclass Paleoptera. All other insects with wings are in the Neoptera, and are...
Sharks, skates, rays, and even stranger fish make up the Chondrichthyes, or "cartilaginous fish." First appearing on Earth almost 450 million years ago, cartilaginous fish today include both fearsome predators and harmless mollusc-eaters (harmless, that is, unless you are a mollusc). A number of...
Click on this image to view a larger version! This brilliant, spiny, and poisonous lionfish is just one of the world's 20,000 living species of actinopterygians. The name means "ray-finned," for unlike the Chondrichthyes, the fins of the Actinopterygii are webs of skin supported by bony or horny...
The clade Lycopsida, of which the living lycopsids are members, also diverged in the Early Devonian. The Rhynie Chert plant, Asteroxylon is a member of this clade. Asteroxylon (Figure 5.3c) (VG 1:12) is characterized by a lobed protostele, lateral, reniform, stalked sporangia, and an axis covered...
from the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Image by Karen Osborn of specimen collected by James Barry. Barnacles are more familiar members of the Cirripedia. Most species are specialized to live within a specific substrate. Some burrow into mollusk shells or coral skeletons whereas others burrow into logs or...