[old time piano music]

I'd like to discuss invertebrates today,

and an introduction to symmetry
and, um, thinking about
those organisms;
what is an invertebrate?
So the definition of-of an
invertebrate
is that it doesn't have
a backbone or a spine.
So that actually is
kind of an overarching term
that includes all organisms,
except those
that belong to the Vertebrata,
which is a sub-phylum
of the phylum Chordata.
So when we think
about invertebrates,
we wanna start
to describe those organisms
or those specimens
or those fossils
that we find in our backyard
a-and try to deduce
how that organism lived.
Um, and so invertebrates can be
wildly intricate or they can be fairly simple, [chuckles]
um, if-if I'm not being too,
um-um
[chuckles]
I don't wanna insult
those invertebrates,
um, being too simple, but, um,
so we want to start to deduce the type of environment
that those organisms lived
and how they lived, actually,
and we can get
a lot of information
from just a simple little fossil
and considering
the symmetry of it,
and we can start
to think about how it moved.
So let's-let's discuss symmetry
for just a moment here.
So the first thing you might,
uh, notice about
a-a specimen that you pick up
or a dead organism
that you-that you find,
um, or a fossil,
is the sh-the general shape.
And so one of the descriptors
of that shape is symmetry.
And so what symmetry is, is a,
um, a recognition
of some type of,
um, organized structure that
maybe can be r-uh, reflected,
where-where different sides
of the organism are the same.
For example, uh, a human,
you can tell if you
split it down the middle,
um, the right and
the left half are same-
are the same, and so
that's a type of symmetry.
And so the first
type of symmetry is
the lack of symmetry. [laughs]
For example, a shell,
the-the general overall shape
is asymmetrical.
So you wanna look at it
on all sides and consider it,
and I come up with the fact
that yes, it's very organized
in its structure,
it has this spiral shape,
but the overall shape
is asymmetrical.
I can't find a mirror plane here
where two or more sides
are the same,
so that's asymmetry,
the lack of symmetry.
Another type of symmetry
is called radial symmetry,
and that's where the-the tight
definition of radial symmetry
is where you almost have
an infinite number
of mirror planes.
You could cut that organism
in-on-in any direction,
um, and-and those pieces
will be the same.
So if you think
of a pizza, right, [laughs]
if you-if you cut that pizza
down the middle,
across the other middle,
all-across the side,
all the pieces look the same.
You can turn it around,
um, you can fold it in half,
and all those folds are gonna-
are going to be represented
equally on both sides.
So, um, a more specific form
of radial symmetry
is called pentameral symmetry.
So pent- or penta-,
that refers to the number five,
and so pentameral symmetry,
for example,
um, is a type of radial symmetry
where there are
five equal pieces.
And so if I'm counting the-the
pieces on the specimen,
and actually the back kind of gives it away, [laughs]
um, you-you can actually count
five areas that are the exact same
as the one that's next to them, or-or mostly.
So-so if you can look at
a crinoid for example,
we'll talk about those,
um, eventually,
or an echinoderm here,
you might say "Hey, I notice
five structures on here,"
and it's not only
just the markings,
but you could start
to split this organism
into five equal pieces,
and that's pentamerally radially symmetrical organism,
so pentameral symmetry.
So the last type of symmetry,
we would say as humans the most
sophisticated [laughs]
type of symmetry,
is bilaterally
symmetrical organisms.
And so bi- is two,
and so bilaterally, um,
symmetrical organisms
have a plane in some direction that you can cut it
where those two halves
are mirror images of each other.
So again, I-I said, humans,
if you cut 'em down-
down the center here,
kind of sagittaly
down the middle,
the two, um, right and left
sides should be mirror images.
Um, so a-a-a more...
ancient organism
is this ammanoid here,
and, um, maybe on the top here,
on-on one plane,
um, that you would consider,
it doesn't look symmetrical.
It looks, you know,
again, this spiral shape,
but if you turn it all around
and you look at it
kind of head on,
you can see "Oh, actually,
"the right and left sides,
"you could take those pieces apart and they would look
"sym-they would look the same; they would be symmetrical."
So I can identify two-two sides,
and that's bilateral symmetry.
Another example is,
oop, this cephalopod.
It's a squid [laugh]
or-or a cuttlefish.
And again, if you kind of
look at it from the top,
the tentacles look
radially symmetrical,
so the soft parts
are radially symmetrical.
Maybe it has an-you know,
maybe six,
I should count them,
but you know,
six or ten
or all those scary tentacles,
and they're-they're
radially symmetrical around-
around the mouth.
But if you look at
the hard parts,
um, I could actually
cut this organism,
you know,
down the center, in this case,
and-and find that
those two sides are the same.
And so again,
that's bilaterally symmetrical.
Lastly, I wanted
to show you this one,
because you'll
be seeing it over and over.
It's an important fossil.
This is a brachiopod. [laughs]
Um, and the tricky thing
about brachiopods is
basically it has two shells,
so it's a bivalve,
and you would think that well,
that top and bottom should
be the same, shouldn't they?
You should have this plane
across the center,
um, where those-
those two shells meet,
uh, the plane of commissure,
but actually with brachiopods
that's not the case.
If you can see, it actually
kind of has this wave motion,
um, if you look at it head on
at that plane of commissure
where those two shells meet.
And so, but if you-if you think
a little bit differently
and try to cut it
a different way,
actually, if you go down
the center,
um, perpendicular
to the plane of commissure,
we see that the right
and left sides are the same
So that is another bilaterally
symmetrical organism,
but it's a little tricky.