A body plan is the blueprint for the way the body of an organism is laid out. An organism's symmetry,[1] its number of body segments and number of limbs are all aspects of its body plan. One of the key issues of developmental biology is the evolution of body plans as different as those of a starfish, a fern, or a mammal, from a common biological heritage, and in particular how radical changes in body plans have occurred over geological time. The body plan is a key feature of an organism's morphology and, since the discovery of DNA, developmental biologists have been able to learn a lot about how genes control the development of structural features through a cascade of processes in which key genes produce morphogens, chemicals that diffuse through the body to produce a gradient that acts as a position indicator for cells, turning on other genes, some of which in turn produce other morphogens. A key discovery was the existence of groups of homeobox genes which are responsible for laying down the basic body plan in organisms. The homeobox genes are remarkably conserved between species as diverse as the fruitfly and man, the basic segmented pattern of the worm or fruitfly being the origin of the segmented spine in man. The field of evolutionary developmental biology, which studies the genetics of morphology in detail is now a rapidly expanding one [1], with many of the developmental genetic cascades, particularly in the fruitfly drosophila, now catalogued in considerable detail.[2]
Body plan is the basis for phylum, and there are 35 different basic animal body plans, corresponding to different phyla.
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The evolution of body plans became inevitable with the emergence of differentiated multicellular life in the Ediacaran Era, over 600 million years ago. The most basic and successful structure, for free-moving organisms, is the "pipe" or alimentary canal. This is common even to organisms as diverse as humans and earthworms. It is essentially a passage having a mouth at one end, and a cloaca or anus at the other. The simple process of nutrient capture, digestion, and waste disposal is fundamental to the body plan of advanced, free-moving animals. Vertebra, limbs, even brains are supplementary to the pipe. Natural selection has spun off an enormous range of variations on this basic theme, but the pipe model itself remains. The basic symmetry and organization of this body plan apparently gave an ancient organism an enormous advantage at survival and reproduction, and it has been preserved in most animals ever since.
The Cambrian explosion refers to the massive increase in different body plans that took place around 530 million years ago. Fossils from this era show all sorts of odd shapes, many quite unlike anything found today. At that time it was possible for organisms to survive and make a living even though they were unrefined and unlikely, because predation had yet to evolve, along with arms races that would optimise and streamline them to occupy a particular ecological niche.
Bauplan (German for building plan, blueprint; plural: baupläne or bauplaene) is a closely related term in biology referring to the common new and original (homologous) properties of the members of a systematic group (taxon). It is not necessary that a bauplan precisely describes any one particular species of that group.
The concept of bauplan is employed in the studies of morphology, taxonomy, comparative physiology, evolutionary physiology, and, most notably, phylogenetics and evolution. Before the advent of genetic sequencing, the analysis of the bauplan of fossils was the primary method to determine hypothetical relationships and lineages of species, both living and extinct. The idea is that species that are closely related share more common properties, hence a more detailed bauplan. Small differences of bauplan are indicative of species belonging to a parent, child or sibling taxon.
Similarities and differences in adult shape and form, as well as the developmental pattern of embryos, provide the framework for modern taxonomic classification. These comparisons are the basis of phylogenetic systematics. Embryonic development is relatively consistent among animals with similar body plans, although similar larval forms may give rise to very different adults in some groups. The timing, pattern, and scale of developmental events determine the shape of an organism, and closely related groups are more likely to share structural and developmental similarities than those that are more distantly related. Homologous structures and developmental stages—those that are similar among related groups because they are inherited from a common ancestor—are the basis of modern biological classification.
The current range of body plans is far from exhausting the possible patterns for life: the Ediacaran biota appears to contain numerous species and taxa with body plans quite different from any found in currently living organisms.
The most commonly seen body plan amongst vertebrates is that of the tetrapod, which include all mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles. Some animal groups, such as the cetaceans, bats and most birds have been modified (e.g. front limbs become wings or flippers) but nevertheless, they are still tetrapods.
The invertebrates employ a much more diverse array of body plans, such as seen in insects (six legs, three body parts and an exoskeleton), cephalopods (no skeleton, hydrostatically stiffened tentacles, primary propulsion by squeezing water out of a mantle cavity), echinoderms (fivefold radial symmetry, external skeleton, movement by hydrostatically operated tube feet) and various phyla of "worms" (tube-shaped, movement by expanding and contracting parts of the body).
The most varied collection of body forms known is found in the Burgess Shale, where fossils from a Cambrian sea show a tremendous variety of body forms that came to rise (only to later fall extinct) during the Cambrian explosion.
One common theme in science fiction is the appearance of extraterrestrial beings, descriptions of which have ranged from being simple variants on human anatomy to beings with body plans wildly different from any found on Earth. The field of exobiology attempts to bring these and similar speculations into the realm of serious scientific investigation.