The works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 2 (of 4) : $b A treatise on comparative embryology: InvertebrataBalfour, Francis M. (Francis Maitland)
Science
The works of Francis Maitland Balfour, Volume 2 (of 4) : $b A treatise on comparative embryology: Invertebrata
Balfour, Francis M. (Francis Maitland)
Embryology; Zoology
(3) How far such forms agree with living or fossil forms in the adult
state; such an agreement being held to imply that the living or fossil
form in question is closely related to the parent stock of the group
in which the larval form occurs. It is not easy to cite examples of a
very close agreement of this kind between the larval forms of one
group and the existing or fossil forms of another. The larvæ of some
of the Chætopoda with long provisional setæ resemble fossil Chætopods.
The Rotifers have many points of resemblance to the trochosphere,
especially to that form of trochosphere characteristic of the
Mollusca. The Turbellarians have some features in common with the
Coelenterate planula. Some of the Gephyrea in the presence of a
præoral lobe resemble certain trochosphere types. The larva of the
Tunicata has the characters of a simple type of the Chordata.
Within the limits of a single group agreements of this kind are fairly
numerous. In the Craniata the tadpole of the Anura has its living
representative in the Pisces and perhaps especially in the Myxinoids.
The larval forms of the Insecta approach Peripatus. The stalked larva
of Comatula is reproduced by the living Pentacrinus and Rhizocrinus
etc. Numerous examples of the same phenomenon are found
amongst the Crustacea.
(4) How far organs appear in the embryo or larva which either atrophy
or become functionless in the adult state, and which persist
permanently in members of some other group or in lower members of the
same group. Cases of this kind are of the most constant occurrence,
and it is only necessary to cite such examples as the gill slits and
Wolffian body in the embryos of higher Craniata to illustrate the kind
of instance alluded to. The same conclusions may be drawn from them as
from the cases under the previous heading.
(5) How far organs pass in the course of their development through a
condition permanent in some lower form. Phylogenetic conclusions may
be drawn from instances of this character, though they have a more
important bearing on Organology than on Phylogeny.
The considerations which were used to shew that the ancestral history
is reproduced in the ontogeny of the individual apply with equal force
to the evolution of organs. The special questions in Organology, on
which Comparative Embryology throws light, may be classified under the
following heads.
(1) The origin and homologies of what are known as the germinal
layers; or the layers into which the embryo becomes divided
immediately after the segmentation.
(2) The origin of primary tissues, epithelial, nervous, muscular,
connective, etc., and their relation to the germinal layers.
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