Introduction to Eumetazoa

The true animals

True epithelium, definite body axes, specialized tissues

EUMETAZOA

Chapter 6
 True Epithelia

EPITHELIUM cell layer that covers surfaces, lines

internal cavities and spaces

With basal lamina, apical-basal polarity, cell-cell

junctions, immobile
Allows for establishment of regulated compartments
(connective tissue, gut lumen, coelom)
Epithelial cells control passage of materials
Environment under the epithelium can be chemically
controlled

Chapter 6
 True Epithelia

APICAL-BASAL POLARITY

BASAL LAMINA

HEMIDESMOSOMES

Epithelial Junctions
AHDERING
SEALING
GAP

Chapter 6
 Epidermis, Gastrodermis & Gut
EPIDERMIS the outer skin; covers the surface of the
eumetazoan body
Secretory
Absorptive
Impermeable
GASTRODERMIS stomach skin; epithelial layer that
lines the gut and joins the epidermis at the mouth

GUT internal, epithelia-lined cavity; it is a regulated

compartment
GUT LUMEN (CAVITY) also regulated
compartment
Allows EXTRACELLULAR DIGESTION
Secretes digestive enzymes and absorbs products
Chapter 6
 Connective Tissue
CONNECTIVE-TISSUE COMPARTMENT lies between
the epi- and gastrodermis
May just be the basal lamina of the two epithelia
May be very thick

CONNECTIVE TISSUE consists of ECM and cells; no

collective term for cells of the ECM

Sponges mesohyl
Metazoans blastocoel
Cnidarians mesoglea
Bilateria simply called connective tissue

Chapter 6
 Eumetazoan Skeletons
Skeletons can:

Maintain body shape

Support or protect the body
Transmit force of muscle
contraction
Be internal or external
Be mineral, organic or both
Be fluid or solid

Chapter 6
 Fluid Skeleton
HYDROSTATIC SKELETON water-filled skeleton,
a.k.a. a hydrstat; cavity filled with water-based fluid
**This is a eumetazoan innovation!!**
Surrounded by muscles (circular and longitudinal)
Muscles contract and pressurize the fluid
Water is incompressible
CIRCULAR CONTRACTION lengthens hydrostat
and stretches longitudinal muscles
LONGITUDINAL CONTRACTION shortens
hydrostat and stretches circular muscles
Utility inflate body, extend parts, locomotion, burrowing

Chapter 6
Fluid Skeleton

Body wall
strengthened by
inelastic fibers (like
collagen)
Resists aneurisms

Orthogonal Crossed-helical

Chapter 6
 Solid Skeleton
PLIANT SKELETON made of materials that
are rubbery and elastic
Deform when stretched, spring back to original
shape
Proteins, polysaccharides, water
Use as CT in comb jellies, mesoglea in jellyfish,
hinges of bivalves

RIGID SKELETON made of materials

that resist a change of shape (bone/shell)
Insect framework, terrestrial and flying invertebrates, and
fast moving crustaceans of the ocean

Chapter 6
 Movement and Body Size

Cilia/Flagella VS Muscles

Only in water Water, air, land

Associated with surface
area (effective when S/V is
large) body parts with respect to
Small, lilliputian
invertebrates
Prone to surface friction
and viscous drag from
environement
Momentum stops when
ciliary/flagellar beat stops
Associated with volume
Locomotion, can move
other body parts (ALL
ANIMALS DO THIS)
Effective when S/V is
small

Chapter 6
Musculature
EPITHELIOMUSCULAR CELLS:
Arose from epithelium.
Actin-myosin microfilaments
allowed some to become
contractile.
MYOEPITHELIAL CELLS:
Contractile fibers isolated in
independent cells but are still part
of the epithelium.
Outside the basal lamina
MYOCYTES:
True muscle, contractile cells
below basal lamina.
No longer epithelial.
Chapter 6
 Musculature
SMOOTH MUSCLE:
Contracts slowly.
Tension over large range of
stretch lengths.
Contractile tentacles.
CROSS-STRIATED MUSCLE:
Contracts rapidly.
Tension over limited range.
Snapping jaws or claws.

OBLIQUELY-STRIATED:
Intermediate of the other two.
Extensible animals that can
make quick movements.
ANTAGONISTIC
Chapter 6
Neurons and Nervous System

Eumetazoans use nerve cells to

detect, evaluate, and respond to
environmental stimuli.
NEURONS - respond to stimuli
by transmitting information as a
wave of depolarization to the
target cells
Sensory receptors and neurons
arose from epithelia (like
muscle cells).
They became specialized and
migrated to a connective-tissue
compartment
Chapter 6
 Neurons and Nervous System
Transmission of a nerve impulse from neuron to neuron
or from neuron to effector (muscle) occurs via:

Electrical junctions gap junctions that join

cells so that membrane depolarization (action
potential) spreads uninterrupted; no
organismal control

SYNAPSE gap between two cells (synaptic

cleft) through which the action potential is
carried by chemical neurotransmitters

Chapter 6
 Sense Cells & Organs
Eumetazoans need to obtain a dynamic picture of their
environment so they can respond appropriately.
Response to different stimuli like:

Electromagnetic Mechanical

Chemical Magn etic

Direction and distance to the source of the
stimuli are so important to each eumtezoan

Simple: sensory neuron-effector

Complex: multiple stimuli, whole-body
response, accessory structures, CNS
Chapter 6
 Gravity Receptors
STATOCYSTS hollow capsules
lined with MECHANORECEPTORS
and with a dense, heavy STATOLITH
at the center.

Gravity pulls the statolith against

the bed of mechanoreceptors
which then causes alterations of
the depolarization pattern.

Chapter 6
 Photoreceptors
CILIARY and RHABDOMERIC can be dispersed as
individual cells or, can be grouped together as EYES.

OCELLUS:PIGMENT SPOT
PIGMENT CUP EVERTED or INVERTED
Chapter 6
Development
Zygote Cleavage Blastula *Gastrulation* Larva

Gastrulation types:
INVAGINATION
EPIBOLY
INGRESSION

Chapter 6
 Development
DIPLOBLASTIC
adults have 2
epithelial layers
(epidermis &
gastrodermis)

TRIPLOBLASTIC adults have 3

epithelial layers (addition of
mesothelium)

MESODERM located between

ecto- and endoderm and can arise
from either

Chapter 6
 Growth

Solitary VS Modular

Juvenile grows via Add new, small,

general increase in size identical units (module
ALLOMETRIC different ZOOID)
body parts grow at different Clonal budding
rates All zooids form a colony
Surface > Volume Favorable SA:V
Gills, lungs, gastrodermis ISOMETRIC similar
Associated with growth
locomotion and increasing Colony is considered
complexity on one body one individual
axis Self repair, higher
Self repair, often killed survival if preyed upon
Chapter 6
Growth

Chapter 6
 Growth
POLYMORPHISM modular growth that results in
specialization of zooids with different forms and
functions (very common in Cnidarians)

Exemplifies the
replication-
specialization-
integration pattern
of metazoans

Chapter 6