Biology and Its Makers: With Portraits and Other IllustrationsLocy, William A. (William Albert)
History
Biology and Its Makers: With Portraits and Other Illustrations
Locy, William A. (William Albert)
Biology -- History
Alterations by Von Siebold and Leuckart.--But, in the mean time,
naturalists were not long in discovering that the primary divisions
established by Cuvier were not well balanced, and, indeed, that they
were not natural divisions of the animal kingdom. The group Radiata was
the least sharply defined, since Cuvier had included in it not only
those animals which exhibit a radial arrangement of parts, but also
unicellular organisms that were asymmetrical, and some of the worms
that showed bilateral symmetry. Accordingly, Karl Th. von Siebold, in
1845, separated these animals and redistributed them. For the simplest
unicellular animals he adopted the name Protozoa, which they still
retain, and the truly radiated forms, as starfish, sea-urchins, hydroid
polyps, coral animals, etc., were united in the group Zoöphyta. Von
Siebold also changed Cuvier's branch, Articulata, separating those
forms as crustacea, insects, spiders, and myriopods, which have jointed
appendages, into a natural group called Arthropoda, and uniting the
segmented worms with those worms that Cuvier has included in the
radiate group, into another branch called Vermes. This separation
of the four original branches of Cuvier was a movement in the right
direction, and was destined to be carried still farther.
[Illustration: Fig. 35.--Karl Th. von Siebold, 1804-1885.]
Von Siebold (Fig. 35) was an important man in the progress of zoölogy,
especially in reference to the comparative anatomy of the invertebrates.
Leuckart (Fig. 36), whose fame as a lecturer and teacher attracted
many young men to the University of Leipsic, is another conspicuous
personality in zoölogical progress.
This distinguished zoölogist, following the lead of Von Siebold, made
further modifications. He split Von Siebold's group of Zoöphytes into
two distinct kinds of radiated animals; the star-fishes, sea-urchins,
sea-cucumbers, etc., having a spiny skin, he designated Echinoderma;
the jelly-fishes, polyps, coral animals, etc., not possessing a true
body cavity, were also united into a natural group, for which he
proposed the name Coelenterata.
[Illustration: Fig. 36.--Rudolph Leuckart, 1823-1898.]
From all these changes there resulted the seven primary
divisions--branches, subkingdoms, or phyla--which, with small
modifications, are still in use. These are Protozoa, Coelenterata,
Echinoderma, Vermes, Arthropoda, Mollusca, Vertebrata. These seven
phyla are not entirely satisfactory, and there is being carried on
a redistribution of forms, as in the case of the brachiopods, the
sponges, the tunicates, etc. While all this makes toward progress, the
changes are of more narrow compass than those alterations due to Von
Siebold and Leuckart.
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