| | [No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03) |
 | | Because they are soft-bodied animals, tunicates have left little fossil record (Jurassic) apart from the hard mineral particles, called spicules that are found in the tunics of some species. |
 | | The fossil Yarnemia from the Precambrian has been suggested as a urochordate, but this is doubtful. |
 | | Summary: The prechordate ancestor was probably a primitive, sessile echinoderm, which used tentacles for filter feeding. |
| www.cbu.edu /~esalgado/BIOL246/ch17.doc (6050 words) |