Balanoglossus

About: Balanoglossus is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 33 publications have been published within this topic receiving 937 citations.

Materials for the Study of Variation: Treated with Especial Regard to Discontinuity in the Origin of Species

Abstract: Building on the work of Darwin and Mendel, the biologist William Bateson (1861–1926) was the first scientist to combine the study of variation, heredity and evolution, and to use the term 'genetics'. This book was first published in 1894 after many years of experimental and theoretical work - particularly in the embryology of the acorn worm genus Balanoglossus - which had been guided by the principle that embryonic developmental stages replay the evolutionary transitions of adult forms of an organism's ancestors. Bateson was the first to challenge this theory, which made him unpopular among the scientific establishment of the time, but he was proved right. Organising his material by anatomical sections, Bateson explores speciation, phylogeny and discontinuous and continuous variation among a wide range of species, including vertebrates, invertebrates and plants. This pioneering work offers great insight into how the study of genetics and inheritance itself evolved.

Reinterpretation of Yunnanozoon as the earliest known hemichordate

Abstract: THE Chengjiang fossil Lagerstatte is one of the earliest and most important palaeontological sites from the Phanerozoic era1,2, about 530 million years ago3. It yields extremely abundant and remarkably preserved soft-bodied fossils and shells with soft parts of various kinds, including bradoriids4–6, trilobites7,8, crustaceans9, brachiopods, worms, sponges, algae and many unknown forms10–13. One of these fossils is Yunnanozoon14, which we reinterpret here as the earliest known hemichordate. Possessing half of the characteristic chordate features and providing an anatomical link between invertebrates and chordates15, Hemichor-data is a minor but important phylum in evolutionary biology. Hemichordates comprise two main groups: the enteropneusts, or 'acorn worms', and the pterobranchs. Apart from the presumable inclusion of graptolites in pterobranchs16–19, there are very few hemichordate fossils2,17,20. Although Yunnanozoon is superficially similar to the chordates21, its typical tripartite body plan is broadly consistent with that of living balanoglossid hemichor-dates (enteropneusts).

Isolation of 2,6-dibromophenol from the marine hemichordate, Balanoglossus biminiensis.

Abstract: 2,6-Dibromophenol has been isolated from a luminous marine enteropneust, Balanoglossus biminiensis, found on intertidal beach areas at Sapelo Island, Georgia. This compound, responsible for the characteristic "iodoform-like" odor of these animals, is present in relatively large amounts; the estimated quantity per organism is 10 to 15 milligrams. Identity of the isolated substance as 2,6 dibromophenol is based on analyses of ultraviolet, infrared, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectra, mass spectrometry analysis, and on melting-point data.

Halogenated phenol and indole constituents of acorn worms

Abstract: 1. 1. Distribution of halophenols and haloindoles in four species of Enteropneusta is reported. 2. 2. The “iodoform-like” odor of the animals is due to bromophenols in the genus Balanoglossus and to 3-haloindoles in the genera Ptychodera and Glossobalanus. 3. 3. Distribution of metabolites among different species may result from variation in competing halogenation and oxidation processes which operate from common precursors.