Morphological description, character conceptualization and the reconstruction of ancestral states exemplified by the evolution of arthropod hearts.

ABSTRACT: Arthropods are the most species-rich taxon within Metazoa and have gone through major evolutionary changes with regard to body organization. Arthropod hearts and their associated vascular systems are thus morphologically highly disparate: while some arthropods exhibit very powerful hearts and complex vascular systems, other arthropods do not possess any kind of vascular system or heart at all. A comprehensive study investigating the structure of arthropods hearts has never been undertaken. In this study, we therefore investigate the hearts of 34 species from all major arthropod groups using various imaging techniques (confocal laser scanning microscopy, micro-computed tomography, histology) and describe them by addressing different aspects of heart morphology, e.g. the structure of the myo

SUBMITTER: Gopel T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6147405 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature