Anatomy, Comparative; Embryology, Human; Evolution; Human beings -- Origin
As a rule, the cells which compose the two primary germinal layers show
appreciable differences even in the gastrula stage. Generally (if not
always) the cells of the skin-layer or ectoderm (Figs. 36 _c_ and 37
_e_) are the smaller, more numerous, and clearer; while the cells of
the gut-layer, or entoderm (_i_), are larger, less numerous, and
darker. The protoplasm of the ectodermic (outer) cells is clearer and
firmer than the thicker and softer cell-matter of the entodermic
(inner) cells; the latter are, as a rule, much richer in yelk-granules
(albumen and fatty particles) than the former. Also the cells of the
gut-layer have, as a rule, a stronger affinity for colouring matter,
and take on a tinge in a solution of carmine, aniline, etc., more
quickly and appreciably than the cells of the skin-layer. The nuclei of
the entoderm-cells are usually roundish, while those of the
ectoderm-cells are oval.
When the doubling-process is complete, very striking histological
differences between the cells of the two layers are found (Fig. 37).
The tiny, light ectoderm-cells (_e_) are sharply distinguished from the
larger and darker entoderm-cells (_i_). Frequently this differentiation
of the cell-forms sets in at a very early stage, during the
segmentation-process, and is already very appreciable in the blastula.
We have, up to the present, only considered that form of segmentation
and gastrulation which, for many and weighty reasons, we may regard as
the original, primordial, or palingenetic form. We might call it
“equal” or homogeneous segmentation, because the divided cells retain a
resemblance to each other at first (and often until the formation of
the blastoderm). We give the name of the “bell-gastrula,” or _
archigastrula,_ to the gastrula that succeeds it. In just the same form
as in the coral we considered (_Monoxenia,_ Fig. 29), we find it in the
lowest zoophyta (the gastrophysema, Fig. 30), and the simplest sponges
(olynthus, Fig. 36); also in many of the medusæ and hydrapolyps, lower
types of worms of various classes (brachiopod, arrow-worm, Fig. 31),
tunicates (ascidia), many of the echinoderms (Fig. 32), lower
articulates (Fig. 33), and molluscs (Fig. 34), and, finally, in a
slightly modified form, in the lowest vertebrate (the amphioxus, Fig.
35).
Fig.37 Cells from the two primary germinal layers. Fig. 37—Cells from
the two primary germinal layers of the mammal (from both layers of the
blastoderm). _i_ larger and darker cells of the inner stratum, the
vegetal layer or entoderm. _e_ smaller and clearer cells from the outer
stratum, the animal layer or ectoderm.
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