Question

Comment on the statement "Peripatus is said to be a connecting link between annelids and arthropods."

Answer 1

Peripatus:

1. Peripatus is a terrestrial creature that inhabits damp environments.
2. It is nocturnal, predatory, and carnivorous in its dietary preferences.
3. It has a caterpillar-like body.
4. It is about cylindrical, soft, elongated, and bilaterally symmetric.
5. Cuticle, epidermis, dermis, and muscles make up the dermomuscular body wall.

Similarity with arthropods:

1. They have paired jointed legs, and compound eyes like other arthropods.
2. Antennas are present.
3. Chitinous cuticle similar to that of arthropods covers the body.
4. Claws are attached to the appendages.
5. Lateral ostia serve as a portal between the heart and the pericardial sinus.
6. Tracheae are present as breathing tubes.
7. They both follow a similar developmental path.

Similarity with annelids:

1. It has a non-chitinous cuticle.
2. Truncated extremities on a vermiform body.
3. There is no true head.
4. Both exhibit homonymous segmentation.
5. The cuticle that covers the outside of the body is thin and flexible.
6. Smooth muscles and similar muscle functions are found in musculature.
7. Slow, peristalsis-based movement, similar to an earthworm.
8. Nephridia that are segmentally paired.
9. Coxal glands and slime glands are comparable to analogous glands in chaetopoda.
10. The eye's structure is the same as that of polychaetes.
11. The reproductive tracts have cilia.