Craniata
Craniata (sometimes Craniota) is a proposed clade of chordate animals that contains the vertebrates (subphylum Vertebrata) and Myxini (hagfish) as living representatives. Craniata includes all animals with a skull, or cranium, as the name suggests.
| Craniata Temporal range: Early Cambrian - Recent
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| Pacific hagfish resting on bottom down off Oregon coast. | |
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| (unranked): | Craniata Janvier 1981
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| Subphyla | |
These two taxa lack proper vertebrae, which are characteristic for vertebrates according to the new interpretation, whereas traditionally—and confusingly—they were not (Hickman et al., 2007).
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Wikispecies has information on: Craniata. |
Craniata Media
Idealised vertebrate body plan, showing key characteristics
Fossilized skeleton (cast) of Diplodocus carnegii, showing an extreme example of the vertebral column that gives the vertebrates their name. The species is a tetrapod, its four legs adapting the fish-like body plan for walking on land. The specimen is 26 m (85 ft) long.
Branchial arches bearing gills in a pike
- Haikouichthys cropped.jpg
The Cambrian Haikouichthys, 518 mya
- Acanthostega BW.jpg
Acanthostega, a Devonian labyrinthodont, c. 365 mya
- Hyperodapedon BW2 white background.jpg
Hyperodapedon, a diapsid reptile of the Triassic, c. 230 mya
Diversity of various groups of vertebrates through the geologic ages. The width of the bubbles signifies the number of families.
- Branchiostoma lanceolatum (Amphioxus lanceolatus).png
Branchiostoma lanceolatum (Amphioxus lanceolatus)
- Salpa scheme.png
This is schematic drawing of salp specimen (Order: Salpida).
