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33
a fundamental event in every organism as it deter-
mines the main body features during development.
Consequently, gastrulation plays a major role in
hypotheses regarding the transition from a radi-
ally symmetrical diploblastic animal to a bilaterally
symmetrical triploblastic organism with meso-
derm, the last common bilaterian ancestor.
4.2 The blastopore as the site of
internalization
In most animals the site of internalization of gas-
trulating cells is limited to a speci c area, the blas-
topore. The fate of this site is often not only the area
of germ layer speci cation, it sometimes becomes
the connection of the endodermal digestive cavity
to the ectoderm and thus to the animal’s environ-
ment. This connection is usually called either the
‘mouth’ if the organism has only a single opening
to the gut or if it is the anterior opening of a through
gut, or the ‘anus’ when it corresponds to the pos-
terior opening and functions as a site of excretion.
Grobben (1908) subdivided the bilaterian clade into
the taxa Protostomia and Deuterostomia based on
the fate of the blastopore becoming either the mouth
or the anus. Grobben claimed that in most proto-
stomes (‘ rst mouth’) the blastopore becomes the
mouth, and the anus is formed secondarily at a dif-
ferent site, later during embryogenesis. In contrast
to protostomes, in deuterostome embryos the site
of gastrulation becomes the anus while the mouth
is formed at a different site in the animal hemi-
sphere of the embryo (Figure 4.1). The blastopore
becoming the anus appears to be ancestral for the
Gastrulation is one of the major events during the
embryogenesis of an animal. In addition to the for-
mation of the germ layers it is often the time when
the future axial properties and digestive open-
ings become apparent, and it is not surprising that
this event plays an important role in hypotheses
regarding metazoan evolution. A major difference
between these theories concerns the structure of
the alimentary canal and the relationship of its
openings to the blastopore of the last common
bilaterian ancestor. Here we review competing
theories of bilaterian evolution and evaluate their
plausibility in the light of recent insights into meta-
zoan phylogeny and development.
4.1 Gastrulation as a process
determining multiple body plan
characteristics
The evolution of an internal germ layer enabled the
compartmentalization of the body of multicellular
animals (Metazoa) into a digestive cavity (endo-
derm) and an outer layer, the integument (ecto-
derm). The developmental process that separates
the inner from the outer cell populations is called
gastrulation. During gastrulation, cells or cell layers
are internalized and later form the digestive epithe-
lium and often also germ cells. Bilaterians have in
addition a third germ layer, the mesoderm, which
either separates from the endoderm or ingresses
as independent precursors. Gastrulation not only
generates distinct cell types, it also establishes the
organismal axes from a pre-existing animal– vegetal
embryonic axis. One can thus picture gastrulation as
CHAPTER 4
The mouth, the anus, and the
blastopore—open questions about
questionable openings
Andreas Hejnol and Mark Q. Martindale
04_Telford_Chap04.indd 3304_Telford_Chap04.indd 33 3/24/2009 10:34:08 AM3/24/2009 10:34:08 AM
34 ANIMAL EVOLUTION
variable (see Table 4.1) and the reconstruction of
the ancestral type of gastrulation is further hin-
dered by intrataxon variation within larger clades
such as annelids, nematodes, arthropods, and
nemerteans (Table 4.1). The variability of the rela-
tionship between the blastopore and its possible
future fates—mouth or anus—has led Ulrich (1951)
to dismiss the term Protostomia and rename it
Gastroneuralia, based on the ventral localization
of nerve cords in these taxa. However, as it is not
clear if a ventrally centralized nervous system is
part of the ground pattern of the Protostomia, it is
premature to rename this clade.
4.3 The fate of the blastopore and
its role in scenarios of bilaterian
evolution
The signi cance of transitions from the cnidarians
to the Bilateria, which possess an antero-posterior
and a dorsoventral axis, might be one of the big-
gest controversies in zoology over the last centur-
ies. In cnidarians and ctenophores, two groups that
diverged prior to the origin of the Bilateria, the blas-
topore gives rise to a single opening (mouth–anus)
of the gastric digestive cavity, while in many bilat-
erians two openings are present, both of which can
be formed independently from the blastopore. The
scenarios under debate for explaining this transi-
tion differ in various details, such as the presence
of a coelom or a larval stage. However, the forma-
tion of a through gut and the fate of the blastopore
to the openings are central to understanding bilat-
erian body plan evolution.
4.3.1 The gastraea theory and the ancestral
lateral closure of a slit like blastopore
The gastraea theory (Haeckel, 1872, 1874) proposes
a hypothetical metazoan ancestor similar to the
gastrula stage of recent animals. A fundamental
assumption in the future variations of Haeckel’s
theme of the gastraea, for example the bilaterogas-
traea theory (Jägersten, 1955) and the trochaea the-
ory (Nielsen and Nørrevang, 1985), is the extension
of the ventral blastopore along the antero-posterior
body axis. In these theories, a lateral closure of this
elongated blastopore, which stays open at its ends,
deuterostomes, but the situation in the protostomes
is unclear due to its extreme variability in differ-
ent forms (Table 4.1) and because the phylogenetic
relationships of several key taxa are not known. In
some cases a large maternal investment of yolk (e.g.
hexapods, cephalopods, and onychophorans) in u-
ences the gastrulation process, similar to what is
found in most amniote embryos.
However, even in embryos with small quan-
tities of yolk, the fate of the blastopore is highly
II.I.
Protostomy Amphistomy
Deuterostomy
A
M
A
M
A
M
A
M
A
M
A
M
Figure 4.1 Protostomy, deuterostomy, and amphistomy and
evolutionary scenarios about the direction of change. In protostomy,
the blastopore (bright in all fi gures) is displaced from posterior to
antero-ventral by morphogenetic movements (bright arrow), and
gives rise to the mouth (M). The anus (A), if present, is formed at a
different site at the posterior end of the embryo. In deuterostomy
the blastopore stays at the posterior site of the embryo and either
closes or gives rise to the anus. The mouth is formed at a different
site from the former blastopore in the anterior of the embryo. In
amphistomy, the blastopore elongates and closes laterally with
both ends giving rise to the mouth and anus. One scenario (I) for
the evolution of deuterostomy is using the protostomy as ancestral,
proposing the abbreviation of the anterior movement of the
blastopore (dotted bright arrow) by a molecular separation of the
mouth determination from the blastopore (intermediate stage small).
The other scenario (II) claims the amphistomy as being ancestral,
from which deuterostomy and protostomy evolved by closure of the
blastopore from the posterior to anterior direction (protostomy) or
from the anterior to posterior direction (deuterostomy).
04_Telford_Chap04.indd 3404_Telford_Chap04.indd 34 3/24/2009 10:34:08 AM3/24/2009 10:34:08 AM
THE MOUTH, THE ANUS, AND THE BLASTOPORE 35
theories thus predict a rather morphologically com-
plex bilaterian ancestor, which is consistent with
what has also been proposed on the basis of similar-
ities of the expression of some developmental genes
(Carroll et al., 2001; Arendt, 2004). The two common
themes of these theories are: (1) the simultaneous
evolution of the mouth and anus, and (2) that the
blastopore gives rise to both openings in the com-
mon ancestor. Many authors suggest that a slit-like
blastopore is ancestral for the Bilateria and argue
that a variety of extant animals such as onycho-
phorans, polychaetes, insects and some nematodes
gives rise to a mouth and anus in the bilaterally
symmetrical ancestor with a through gut. This pro-
cess has been termed ‘amphistomy’ by Arendt and
Nübler-Jung (1997). The same concept was the foun-
dation of Remane’s enterocoely theory (Remane,
1950), which begins with a cnidarian polyp trans-
forming into an ‘ur-bilaterian’ by stretching along
its directive axis. Remane’s theory assumes the
simultaneous evolution of the mouth and anus, and
predicts that the coeloms of this hypothetical ances-
tor are formed from the common gastric pouches
of an anthozoan-like polyp (Remane, 1950). These
Table 4.1 Blastopore fates in bilaterian taxa
Taxon Fate of blastopore References
Gastrotricha Protostomy (
Lepidodermella
,
Turbanella
)
Lepidodermella
(Sacks, 1955),
Turbanella
(Teuchert, 1968)
Nematoda Protostomy (
Tobrilus
,
Ascaris
), blastopore
closure (
Tylenchida
)
Tobrilus
(Schierenberg, 2005),
Ascaris
(Boveri, 1899),
Tylenchida
(Malakhov, 1994)
Nematomorpha Deuterostomy (
Paragordius
)
Paragordius
(Montgomery, 1904)
Mollusca Protostomy (
Crepidula
,
Patella
),
deuterostomy (
Viviparus
)
Crepidula
(Conklin, 1897; Hejnol
et al.
, 2007),
Patella
(Dictus and Damen, 1997),
Viviparus
(Dautert, 1929)
Priapulida Blastopore closure?
Priapulus
(Wennberg
et al.
, 2008)
Kinorhyncha ?
Loricifera ?
Platyhelminthes Protostomy (
Planocera
,
Hoploplana
)
Planocera
(Surface, 1907),
Hoploplana
(Boyer
et al
., 1998)
Gnathostomulida ?
Rotifera Protostomy (
Asplanchna
,
Calidina
,
Philodina
)
Asplanchna
(Lechner, 1966),
Calidina
(Zelinka, 1891),
Philodina
(AH, unpublished)
Entoprocta Protostomy (
Pedicellina
)
Pedicellina
(Marcus, 1939)
Nemertea Protostomy (
Procephalotrix
), deuterostomy
(
Drepanophorus
)
Procephalotrix (Iwata, 1985),
Depranophorus
(Friedrich,
1979)
Annelida Protostomy (
Polygordius
), deuterostomy
(
Eunice
), blastopore closure (
Capitella
)
Polygordius
(Woltereck, 1904),
Eunice
(Åkesson, 1967),
Capitella
(Eisig, 1898)
Sipunculida Protostomy (
Phascolosoma
)
Phascolosoma
(Gerould, 1906)
Cycliophora ?
Phoronida Protostomy (
Phoronopsis
)
Phoronopsis
(Rattenbury, 1954)
Brachiopoda Protostomy (
Terebratulina
)
Terebratulina
(Conklin, 1902)
Onychophora Mouth and anus form at different site of
blastopore (
Peripatopsis
)
Peripatopsis
(Manton, 1949)
Tardigrada Protostomy (
Thulinia
)
Thulinia
(Hejnol and Schnabel, 2005)
Arthropoda Protostomy (
Cyprideis
), deuterostomy
(
Meganyctiphanes
)
Cyprideis
(Weygoldt, 1960),
Meganyctiphanes
(Alwes and Scholtz, 2004)
Chaetognatha Deuterostomy (after blastopore closure)
Sagitta
(Hertwig, 1880)
Xenoturbella ?
Hemichordata Deuterostomy (
Balanoglossus
)
Balanoglossus
(Heider, 1909)
Echinodermata Deuterostomy (
Synapta
)
Synapta
(Selenka, 1876)
Cephalochordata Deuterostomy (
Branchiostoma
)
Branchiostoma
(Cerfontaine, 1906)
? Indicates unknown.
04_Telford_Chap04.indd 3504_Telford_Chap04.indd 35 3/24/2009 10:34:09 AM3/24/2009 10:34:09 AM
36 ANIMAL EVOLUTION
evolution of the anus? The most thorough thoughts
about this problem are presented by Salvini-Plawen
(1978, 1980). He points out that in many spiralian
embryos the vegetal (=posterior) blastopore gets
displaced into the antero-ventral direction (e.g.
in molluscs, annelids, nemerteans, and polyclad
atworms), and thus recapitulates the evolution-
ary process (protostomy). The anus is thought to
have evolved independently from the blastopore in
multiple lineages, which is also re ected by the late
developmental formation of the anus in many pro-
tostomes. The deuterostome condition is explained
with an evolutionary ‘abbreviation’ of the anter-
ior movement of the blastopore (Figure 4.1). The
mouth, instead of moving anteriorly in the form of
the blastopore, is immediately formed at its nal
location (Beklemishev, 1969; Salvini-Plawen, 1980)
and the blastopore either closes completely, such
as in chaetognaths and nemerteans, or stays open
and forms the anus, as in nematomorphs, deuteros-
tomes, and several crustaceans (Table 4.1).
4.4 Recent progress in molecular
systematics and developmental
biology and their impact on
the problem
Both competing scenarios differ in their assump-
tion about which type of gastrulation is ancestral
for the Bilateria. In gastraea-based theories the lat-
eral closure of the blastopore—or ‘amphistomy’—
with the simultaneous evolution of the ori ces
would deliver the state from which the diversity of
gastrulation can be derived. In the acoeloid-planu-
loid theory, protostomy is ancestral, including an
independent evolution of an anal opening. Since
both hypotheses have their roots in a time when
the metazoan phylogeny was speculative, a proper
phylogenetic framework is required to determine
the direction of evolutionary change.
4.5 A new animal phylogeny
R e c e n t p r o g r e s s i n m ol e c u l a r b i ol o g y , c o m p ut e r t e c h -
nology and the development of new phylogenetic
reconstruction algorithms have improved the abil-
ity to determine animal relationships with the use
of molecular data (Philippe and Telford, 2006; Dunn
appear to show this kind of gastrulation (Sedgwick,
1884; Arendt and Nübler-Jung, 1997; Nielsen, 2001;
Malakhov, 2004). The most elaborate explanation
of the evolution of gastrulation processes which
supports the gastraea-based theories is delivered
by Arendt and Nübler-Jung (1997). These authors
explain the evolution of deuterostomy by a closure
of the slit-like blastopore from anterior to poster-
ior, leaving an opening, which becomes the anus
(Figure 4.1). Accordingly, protostomy evolved by a
closure of the blastopore from posterior to anterior
leaving a mouth open (Figure 4.1). Indeed, some
bilaterians show a ventrally elongated blastopore
that follows this pattern (e.g. Polygordius).
4.3.2 The acoeloid-planuloid theory and
the ancestrality of protostomy
Competing with ‘gastraea’-based theories is a dif-
ferent view that does not require the simultaneous
evolution of mouth and anus to establish bilateral-
ity. The starting points of these hypotheses were
pioneered by von Graff (1891), who proposed a
paedomorphic planula larva, similar to that of
recent cnidarians, which adopted a benthic life-
style and attened along one body axis, giving rise
to the bilateral symmetry of the Bilateria (Hyman,
1951; Salvini-Plawen, 1978). The authors suggest that
the former posterior blastopore—which gives rise
to the mouth—is shifted to the ventral body side,
to facilitate uptake of food from the ventral sur-
face. This condition is represented by extant acoel
and nemertodermatid atworms, which have only
a ventral opening to their digestive cavity. A pos-
terior position of the mouth is found in the nearly
radially symmetrical acoel Diopisthoporus, which is
thought to re ect the ancestral planula-like condi-
tion (Beklemishev, 1969; Reisinger, 1970) of some
feeding anthozoan planula larvae (Widersten,
1973).
According to these acoeloid-planuloid theories,
the last common bilaterian ancestor was a rather
simple benthic, probably meiofaunal, worm lack-
ing a through-gut, coeloms, and excretory organs
(Hejnol and Martindale, 2008b).
How do proponents of the acoeloid-planuloid
theory explain the variation of the gastrulation
types in the Bilateria and how this is related to the
04_Telford_Chap04.indd 3604_Telford_Chap04.indd 36 3/24/2009 10:34:09 AM3/24/2009 10:34:09 AM
THE MOUTH, THE ANUS, AND THE BLASTOPORE 37
Nübler-Jung, 1997). The cases for which amphistomy
are most commonly cited are onychophorans, the
polychaete Polygordius, and the nematode Pontonema
(e.g. Arendt and Nübler-Jung, 1997; Nielsen, 2001).
In drawings from the early research on the ony-
chophoran Peripatus capensis (Figure 4.2a), it indeed
seems that a large extended blastopore closes lat-
erally and both ends stay open and give rise to the
mouth and anus (Balfour, 1883; Sedgwick, 1885). In
contrast, Kennel (1885) draws a different picture for
Peripatus edwardsii, showing that the opening that
gives rise to the mouth and anus is separate from
the blastopore, which is positioned more posteriorly
(Figure 4.2a). The most thorough analysis of ony-
chophoran gastrulation (Manton, 1949) corroborates
Kennel’s ndings for several onychophoran species
and describes the immigration of the mesoderm
and germ cells at the posterior blastopore which
is never in contact with either mouth or anus. The
syncytial development of the yolky onychophoran
embryos seems to be a rather derived adaptation to
their terrestrial lifestyle, as is the case in other ter-
restrial arthropods (e.g. hexapods and myriapods),
and does not represent an example of an ‘amphis-
tomic’ type of gastrulation. Another taxon often
referred to as being ‘amphistomic’ is the polychaete
annelids. The traditional example is the description
of the development of Polygordius (Woltereck, 1904).
A close examination of the original work shows
that the extended blastopore rst closes laterally,
but instead of leaving both ends open, only the
anterior edge gives rise to the mouth (Figure 4.2b).
The anus is formed later in development one cell
row posterior (Figure 4.2b) to the former ‘seam’ of
the blastopore (Woltereck, 1904). Thus, the develop-
ment of Polygordius follows a protostomic pattern
rather than amphistomy. Even if a polychaete can
be shown to possess a prototypical amphistomy
form of gastrulation, it is dif cult to be sure that
it is a plesiomorphic character, since we observe
a high variation in gastrulation patterns in poly-
chaete annelids. Both protostomy (Mead, 1897) and
deuterostomy (Åkesson, 1967), have been described
in polychaetes as well as in other trochozoan taxa
including nemerteans (Friedrich, 1979; Iwata, 1985)
and molluscs (Fioroni, 1979; see Table 4.1).
A similar variation of gastrulation is found in
the third taxon for which amphistomy has been
et al., 2008). In addition to the seminal publication
of Aguinaldo et al., (1997) which established the
subdivision of the Bilateria into three large clades,
Ecdysozoa, Lophotrochozoa, and Deuterostomia,
further resolution of metazoan relationships has
been accomplished by increased taxon sampling
and the use of phylogenomic approaches (Dunn
et al., 2008). A major result pertinent to understand-
ing the role of gastrulation in body plan evolution
is the placement of the acoels as the sister group
to the remaining Bilateria (Ruiz-Trillo et al., 1999;
Baguñà and Riutort, 2004). Their position has been
corroborated by multiple independent molecular
approaches (see Telford et al., 2003, for example).
Our current understanding places the nemerto-
dermatids as sister to Bilateria, and Acoela as sis-
ter to that group, thus breaking the monophyly of
the Acoelomorpha (Jondelius et al., 2002; Wallberg
et al., 2007). Having the acoel atworms at the base
of the Bilateria has important implications for our
understanding of the evolution of organ systems
(Hejnol and Martindale, 2008b). The similarity of
the body plan of acoels and nemertodermatids,
both possessing only one opening to their digest-
ive system and an orthogonal nervous system and
lacking a through gut and nephridia, clearly sup-
port a simple acoeloid bilaterian ancestor, which
was previously proposed on the basis of morpho-
logical data (Hyman, 1951; Salvini-Plawen, 1978;
Haszprunar, 1996a). These data do not support the
gastraea theory of Haeckel or the transformation of
a coelom bearing ur-bilaterian from a sessile cni-
darian polyp (Remane, 1950).
4.6 ‘Amphistomy’—a common theme
in bilaterian development?
While molecular phylogenetic results support the
acoeloid-planuloid theory, the recently improved
resolution of the metazoan relationships with the
use of the phylogenomic approach has implications
for accepting the ‘amphistomy’ hypothesis (Dunn
et al., 2008). If one assumes gastrulation with a
slit-like blastopore is in the ground pattern of the
protostomes and deuterostomes (together named
Nephrozoa after Jondelius
et al., 2002), one would
expect a broad distribution of a lateral closure of
a slit-like blastopore in the Bilateria (Arendt and
04_Telford_Chap04.indd 3704_Telford_Chap04.indd 37 3/24/2009 10:34:09 AM3/24/2009 10:34:09 AM
38 ANIMAL EVOLUTION
If amphistomy was an ancestral pattern, giv-
ing rise to both deuterostomy and protostomy,
it must have been lost independently in nearly
every larger protostome clade. Taken thus, the
developmental diversity of bilaterians described
today gives little support for either amphistomic
gastrulation or Haeckel’s gastraea. Both concepts
seem to deliver a feasible evolutionary scenario
for the human mind but are not represented in
living organisms.
4.7 ‘Abbreviated’ protostomy
as a model for the variability of
gastrulation?
Attempts to explain variations in bilaterian gastru-
lation patterns from the point of view of the acoe-
loid-planuloid theory are based on the movement
of the vegetal blastopore in the antero-ventral
direction, which then gives rise to the mouth in
protostomic animals (Figure 4.1). In the case of
deuterostomy, the mouth forms at a separate site
and no such movement can be observed. Salvini-
Plawen (1980) explains the multiple independent
origins of deuterostomy in several animal lineages
with an evolutionary ‘abbreviation’ of the antero-
ventral movement by means of the mouth forming
directly in the anterior part, the former animal
hemisphere of the embryo. This includes a spatial
described, the Nematoda (Malakhov, 1994). Apart
from a clear case of blastocoelic protostomy in
Tobrilus (Schierenberg, 2005) the site of immigra-
tion of the two entoderm cells becomes the future
mouth in most nematodes, which is separate from
the later immigration site of the mesodermal pre-
cursors which are descendants from different
lineages (Schierenberg, 2006).
The developmental stage for which amphistomic
gastrulation has been described in Pontonema is
much later than the immigration of the E precur-
sors, which form the endoderm—a process which
is usually referred to as gastrulation in nematodes
(Schnabel et al., 1997; Sulston et al., 1983; Voronov
and Panchin, 1998).
Again, even if the cursory study of Pontonema is
correct, it is not clear what type of gastrulation the
last common ancestor of nematodes had, because
the sister group of nematodes, the Nematomorpha
(Dunn et al., 2008) gastrulate by deuterostomy
(Montgomery, 1904; Inoue, 1958). Tardigrades,
which form the sister group to the Arthropoda
and Onychophora (Dunn et al., 2008), gastrulate
by immigration of mesodermal and endodermal
precursor cells and show protostomy (Hejnol and
Schnabel, 2005), with no evidence of enterocoely as
has been assumed by early investigators (Marcus,
1929).
(a) (b)
Sed
g
wick 1889 Kennel 1885 Woltereck 1904
bl.
a.
m.
hg
hg
2d/2/2/2
2d/2/2/1
4d/dext/min
3c/1/post
3c/2/ant/2
3d/2/ant/1
3d/1/ant
3d/2/post/ant/post
3d/2/post/post/ant
Blp-R
w.z.
3d/2/post/ant/post
3d/2/post/post/2
3d/2/post/ant/ant
4d/sin/maj
4a/maj
5a/1
5a/2
5d/1/1
5d/1/2
5d/1/1
5d/2/1
5d/2/2
5D/2
5A/min (post)
5B/sin
4d/sin
Prostoma
5A/maj (ant)
Figure 4.2 Original drawings of the development of the onychophoran
Peripatus
and the annelid
Polygordius
. (a) The drawing of Sedgwick
(left) shows the supposed ‘amphistomic’ gastrulation in the onychophoran
Peripatus capensis
. On the right the drawing from the study of
Kennel on
Peripatus edwarsii
, which shows the blastopore (bl.) separate from the secondary opening, which gives rise to the mouth (m.) and
anus (a.). (b) Original drawings of the gastrulation of
Polygordius
, a supposed amphistomic polychaete. The drawing on the left shows the
closure of the blastopore (dark black line in the original) leaving the mouth open (protostomy). The hindgut (hg) forms at a different site from
the blastopore (arrow).
04_Telford_Chap04.indd 3804_Telford_Chap04.indd 38 3/24/2009 10:34:09 AM3/24/2009 10:34:09 AM
THE MOUTH, THE ANUS, AND THE BLASTOPORE 39
yet been identi ed, but the dissociation of the
blastopore from the position of the mouth already
occurred in the bilaterian stem lineage.
The fate map of the acoel Neochildia fusca shows
that the mouth is formed at a site different from
the blastopore (Henry et al., 2000) and the mouth
of Isodiametra pulchra is formed long after blast-
opore closure (Ladurner and Rieger, 2000). Our
own studies of brachyury and goosecoid expression
in the acoel Convolutriloba longi ssura supports the
homology of the acoel mouth with the protostome
and deuterostome mouth (Hejnol and Martindale,
2008a). The fate map of the acoel Neochildia fusca
furthermore shows that the vegetal part of the
embryo gets shifted in an antero-ventral direction
by the increased proliferation of descendants of
micromere 1a versus those of its ventral counter-
part micromere 1b (Henry et al., 2000). This mirrors
the observations made by fate map studies in spi-
ralian taxa, like polyclads (Boyer et al., 1998), mol-
luscs (Dictus and Damen, 1997; Hejnol et al., 2007),
annelids (Ackermann et al., 2005), and nemerteans
(Maslakova et al., 2004a) in which the dorsal side
of the embryo proliferates more than the ventral
regions (see also discussion in van den Biggelaar
et al., 2002). This shifting of the vegetal part of
the embryo by proliferation of dorsal cells might
be an ancestral bilaterian feature which was lost
in the deuterostome lineage where the position
of the mouth is speci ed independently from the
blastopore. Unfortunately, the relationship of the
blastopore to the primary egg axis has not been
investigated in a large number of ecdysozoan taxa
and appears to be highly variable and obscured by
yolk content.
4.8 Has the anal orifice evolved
several times convergently?
If the mouth is homologous in all animals and was
the earliest opening to the digestive cavity, when
did the anal opening evolve and do all anal open-
ings share a common ancestry? The outgroups of
the Nephrozoa—ctenophores, cnidarians, acoels,
and nemertodermatids—as well as several other
key bilaterian taxa lack an anal opening. All
Platyhelminthes possess only a mouth and the
presence of one or more dorsal anal pores in the
separation of the molecular mechanisms determin-
ing the mouth from the site of gastrulation. It is clear
from the developmental studies on ctenophores
and cnidarians that the mouth and the blastopore
have a common origin (Goldstein and Freeman,
1997). In both animals the blastopore gives rise to
the single opening of the digestive cavity. Thus, it
is not surprising that many genes which have been
assigned to gastrulation and foregut development,
for example brachyury, goosecoid, and forkhead, are
expressed at the cnidarian and ctenophore blast-
opore (Scholz and Technau, 2003; Martindale et al.,
2004; Matus et al., 2006a; Yamada et al., 2007). It is
dif cult, however, to dissect the role of these genes,
since the blastopore has overlapping functions in
mouth formation, axis determination, and germ
layer speci cation.
It is important to point out that the site of gastru-
lation has changed along the animal–vegetal egg
axis in the stem lineage of the Bilateria. While cni-
darians and ctenophores gastrulate at the animal
pole, bilaterians, including acoels, gastrulate at the
vegetal pole. Since bilaterians form their mouths at
the animal hemisphere, this indicates an ancient
separation of the determining factors of mouth
formation and site of germ layer speci cation. The
molecular separation of signalling centres might
explain the variation of the relationships between
mouth and blastopore in the Bilateria by a facili-
tation of movements of signalling centres. The
absence of molecular data from a broader range
of taxa limits detailed conclusions at this time,
but in animals in which the mouth is formed at a
separate site from the blastopore (deuterostomy)
(including asteroids, echinoids, hemichordates,
and chaetognaths), the gene brachyury is expressed
in both locations, indicating the spatial separation
of a former common expression domain at the
blastopore (Peterson et al., 1999; Shoguchi et al.,
1999; Takada et al., 2002). Furthermore, recent work
indicates that the mouth in protostomes and deu-
terostomes—although formed by variable devel-
opmental processes—is homologous, based on the
shared arrangement of the expression domains of
goosecoid and brachyury (Arendt et al., 2001). A spe-
ci c mouth signalling system which would enable
a detailed explanation of how the position of the
mouth becomes speci ed in the Bilateria has not
04_Telford_Chap04.indd 3904_Telford_Chap04.indd 39 3/24/2009 10:34:11 AM3/24/2009 10:34:11 AM
40 ANIMAL EVOLUTION
the highest morphological similarity of their anal
openings: most of them possess an ectodermal
hindgut, which ends in an opening that is separ-
ate from the gonoducts. In most trochozoans the
hindgut is formed after the mouth as a secondary
ectodermal involution at a site separate from the
blastopore. Despite this evidence for the homology
of the trochozoan anus, it remains unclear if the
anus is homologous in all bilaterians and thus
part of the nephrozoan ground pattern. The inde-
pendent evolution of the anus might have been a
result of the extension of the body length in sev-
eral lineages, since a blind gut is mostly present in
smaller animals and parasitic forms. However, it
is too early to draw a conclusion because import-
ant nodes in metazoan phylogeny are still not
resolved. It will be important to see if the Platyzoa,
a taxon comprising Rotifera, Gnathostomulida,
Platyhelminthes, and Gastrotricha, turns out to be
a true monophyletic group or a long-branch arte-
fact (see Chapter 6).
4.9 Conclusion
We are far from understanding the evolution of
gastrulation mechanisms in the different animal
lineages. As in phylogenetic systematics where
broader taxon sampling helps to reconstruct phyl-
ogeny, it is necessary to follow the same approach in
comparative developmental biology to answer the
questions raised from studies of a handful of arbi-
trarily selected animal species. The new molecular
approaches to deliver the necessary phylogenetic
framework, as well as detailed analyses of the
development of more animal taxa using modern
cell lineage studies and molecular developmental
approaches, will deliver insights into the evolution
of the important organ systems.
4.10 Acknowledgements
We thank Tim Littlewood and Max Telford for the
invitation to write this chapter and for organiz-
ing the Royal Society meeting in London. Kevin
Pang critically read the manuscript. The research
was supported by the NSF grant AToL Protostome
to MQM and by a grant of the German Science
Foundation to AH.
branched gut system of some polyclads is a derived
character (Ehlers, 1985). Gnathostomulids and
some rotifers (e.g. Asplanchna) lack an anus and
Xenoturbella, which in the current view forms the
sister taxon to the Ambulacraria or to all remaining
Deuterostomia (Bourlat et al., 2003, 2006; Perseke
et al., 2007; Dunn et al., 2008), also possesses only one
opening to the digestive cavity (Westblad, 1949).
This lack of an anus, however, can be inter-
preted as either loss from a stem species with a
through gut (as seems to be the case for the bra-
chiopods and many parasitic forms) or that the
anus has evolved later and independently in sev-
eral lineages. Although it is not parsimonious that
the anus evolved multiple times, its functional
advantage and the differences in development and
morphology could be evidence for an independent
evolutionary origin (Beklemishev, 1969; Schmidt-
Rhaesa, 2007).
The anus is morphologically very diverse
between the protostome taxa. For example, gastro-
trichs do not possess an ectodermal hindgut like
most bilaterians; instead the anus is formed by
a direct and often temporary connection of the
endoderm to the outside (Ruppert, 1991b). Such a
temporary anus is also present in Micrognathozoa
(Kristensen and Funch, 2000) and in the gnatho-
stomulid Haplognathia (Knauss, 1979). Another
variation of anal morphology found in many lin-
eages is a combined opening of the anus with the
gonopore, a so-called cloaca. Cloacas are present
in the ecdysozoan nematodes, nematomorphs, tar-
digrades, and rotifers. Acoels and nemertoderma-
tids lack an anus but have a male gonopore at the
posterior end of the body formed by an involution
of the ectoderm. Brachyury is expressed in the
hatchling of the acoel Convolutriloba longi ssura in
the posterior ectoderm, which later gives rise to
the adult male gonopore (Hejnol and Martindale,
2008a). This might indicate that the anus of some
taxa, as in the Platyzoa and Ecdysozoa, might have
been derived from a connection between the endo-
derm and the ectoderm of the gonoduct. Thus the
last common nephrozoan ancestor might have had
only an antero-ventral mouth and a posterior male
gonopore similar to what is found in acoels and
nemertodermatids (Hejnol and Martindale, 2008a).
Of the larger animal clades, the Trochozoa show
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