This poster
provides an excellent introduction to animal development. The primary emphasis
is on the invertebrates. It will certainly become a "must have" educational
poster.
This poster uses a tree branching system that incorporated "nodes." They are the
point at which the tree branches. Each node is a physical characteristic. All of
the animals that share that characteristic constitute a clade. For example, the
scientific name for animals is Metazoa. All share a common physical
characteristic, which is that they have two cell layers, which distinguishes
them from plants, which but one.
The new cladistics classification system is used to present an overview of the
primary clades. The only animals with two cell layers are the sponges. They make
up the Parazoa clade, which is the same as the Poriferan phyla. The next step in
animal development is the the development of a third cell layer (the trioblastic
layer.) which provides the basis for anther clade. All other animals have a
hollow ball embryo. They constitute the Eumetazoa Clade. This branching
presentation continues through to the last clade, which is accompanied by a
brief description of the physical characteristics of its members. This last
clade corresponds to the phyla and the phyla name is cited instead of the clade
name. This is because taxonomy, comparative anatomy
Animal Development, Milestones of Evolution and our Animal Kingdom 2 are
designed to be used both individually and together. Animal Development focuses
on the invertebrates and Milestones of Vertebrate Evolution picks up where it
leaves off. Both show how the various clades evolved; Animal Kingdom show the
results. Teachers, students and professionals will find them to be an invaluable
reference.
