Anatomy, Comparative; Embryology, Human; Evolution; Human beings -- Origin
(FIGURE 2.247. The large marine lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), much
reduced. Behind the eye there is a row of seven gill-clefts visible on
the left, in front the round suctorial mouth.)
The few surviving species of the Cyclostoma are divided into two
orders--the Myxinoides and the Petromyzontes. The former, the
hag-fishes, have a long, cylindrical, worm-like body. They were
classed by Linne with the worms, and by later zoologists, with the
fishes, or the amphibia, or the molluscs. They live in the sea,
usually as parasites of fishes, into the skin of which they bore with
their round suctorial mouths and their tongues, armed with horny
teeth. They are sometimes found alive in the body cavity of fishes
(such as the torsk or sturgeon); in these cases they have passed
through the skin into the interior. The second order consists of the
Petromyzontes or lampreys; the small river lamprey (Petromyzon
fluviatilis) and the large marine lamprey (Petromyzon marinus, Figure
2.247). They also have a round suctorial mouth, with horny teeth
inside it; by means of this they attach themselves by sucking to
fishes, stones, and other objects (hence the name Petromyzon =
stone-sucker). It seems that this habit was very widespread among the
earlier Vertebrates; the larvae of many of the Ganoids and frogs have
suctorial disks near the mouth.
The class that is formed of the Myxinoides and Petromyzontes is called
the Cyclostoma (round-mouthed), because their mouth has a circular or
semi-circular aperture. The jaws (upper and lower) that we find in all
the higher Vertebrates are completely wanting in the Cyclostoma, as in
the Amphioxus. Hence the other Vertebrates are collectively opposed to
them as Gnathostoma (jaw-mouthed). The Cyclostoma might also be called
Monorhina (single-nosed), because they have only a single nasal
passage, while all the Gnathostoma have two nostrils (Amphirhina =
double-nosed). But apart from these peculiarities the Cyclostoma
differ more widely from the fishes in other special features of their
structure than the fishes do from man. Hence they are obviously the
last survivors of a very ancient class of Vertebrates, that was far
from attaining the advanced organisation of the true fish. To mention
only the chief points, the Cyclostoma show no trace of pairs of limbs.
Their mucous skin is quite naked and smooth and devoid of scales.
There is no bony skeleton. A very rudimentary skull is developed at
the foremost end of their chorda. At this point a soft membranous
(partly turning into cartilage), small skull-capsule is formed, and
encloses the brain.
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