Basic Anatomy of Species

A body plan is essentially the blueprint for the way the body of an organism is laid out. An organism's symmetry, 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.

A body plan is the basically the blueprint for the way an organism is laid out. All aspects of the species, its body segments and number of limbs are all aspects of its body plan. One of the most interesting issues in developmental biology is the evolution of body plans as radically different as those of a starfish, a fern or dog all from a common biological heritage and how radical changes have occurred over geological time.

Please click below for basic body plans.