Louise Page's talk addressed the role of the larval nervous system as a scaffold for the adult nervous system. To answer this question, she analyzed the phylogeny of larval development in gastropods with regards to swimming/feeding larvae compared to non-swimming/non-feeding larvae. The idea behind this analysis is that the larval nervous systems must control feeding and swimming. It appears that ancestral gastropods developed via a non-feeding larva and that feeding larvae evolved later.
Louise then went on to talk some more about the comparative development of the apical sensory organ (=apical ganglion), already mentioned in the previous talk by Roger Croll. Apical organs of most gastropod larvae contain ciliary tufts, sensory neurons, interneurons and a sensory plexus. This organ may contain receptors for the metamorphic trigger. Otherwise nobody really knows what this organ senses, speculations abound.
Louise then went on to talk some more about the comparative development of the apical sensory organ (=apical ganglion), already mentioned in the previous talk by Roger Croll. Apical organs of most gastropod larvae contain ciliary tufts, sensory neurons, interneurons and a sensory plexus. This organ may contain receptors for the metamorphic trigger. Otherwise nobody really knows what this organ senses, speculations abound.
Posted on Thursday 07 June 2007 - 20:14:23 comment: 0
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