AMPHIOXUS:
The cephalochordate amphioxus occupies a central place in evolutionary thoughts to the origin of Vertebrates. With a prototypical vertebrate-like body plan and a preduplicative genome, the friendly lancelet seems to be in morphological and genetic motionless since its separation from the major branch of evolution that eventually ended up in our corner in the Animal Kingdom. This makes it an ideal model system with which, with the current development of genomic and experimental tools, an Evo-Devo approach to the understanding of the origin of vertebrates looks proper, reliable, and excitingly promising.
The photo below is a picture of Amphioxus. Not the cutest specimens you want to see. They remind me of baby corn, or a fishing Lure. It is amazing to see these types of animals! In class we are learning about the evolution of single cell to multi-cell organisms. It is fascinating to see that this is one of the first vertebrate animals!
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