Oldest known chordate
- Who
- Unknown
- When
- 01 January 0001
Representative of the phylum to which human beings belong, the Pikaia (Pikaia gracilens) is the oldest form of chordate ever found. It lived during the Middle Cambrian age and the first specimen was found in Burgess Shale, West Canada. The animal resembled a contemporary chordate called lancet.
It averaged 1 ½ inches in size and swam above the sea-floor. Pikaia may have filtered particles from the water. Only 60 specimens have so far been found.
Chordates is the common name of the phylum Chordata, which includes vertebrates as well as some invertebrates that posses, at least for some time of their lives, a stiff rod called notochord lying above the gut and beneath a single nerve cord. Chordates are the third largest animal phylum (43,700 living species known).
It averaged 1 ½ inches in size and swam above the sea-floor. Pikaia may have filtered particles from the water. Only 60 specimens have so far been found.
Chordates is the common name of the phylum Chordata, which includes vertebrates as well as some invertebrates that posses, at least for some time of their lives, a stiff rod called notochord lying above the gut and beneath a single nerve cord. Chordates are the third largest animal phylum (43,700 living species known).