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Segmentation (biology)

 

 
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Segmentation (biology)
 
 
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Segmentation in biology refers to the division of some metazoan bodies and plant
Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
 body plans into a series of semi-repetitive segments, and the question of the benefits and costs of doing so. As such, segmentation is related to the more general concept of modularity
Modularity (biology)

Many organisms consist of modules, both anatomically and in their metabolism. Anatomical modules are usually segments or organs. When we look at illustrations of metabolic reactions, we find that they, too, are modular: we can clearly identify, for instance, the citric acid cycle as a complex network that has only a few interfaces with other...
.

Examples of segmented animals are the annelid
Annelid

The annelids, collectively called Annelida , are a large Scientific classification of animals comprising the segmented worms, with about 15,000 modern species including the well-known earthworms and leeches....
s and arthropod
Arthropod

Arthropods are animals belonging to the Scientific classification Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others....
s.






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Gray 111 Vertebral Column
Segmentation in biology refers to the division of some metazoan bodies and plant
Plant

Plants are Life organisms belonging to the Kingdom Plantae. They include familiar organisms such as trees, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae....
 body plans into a series of semi-repetitive segments, and the question of the benefits and costs of doing so. As such, segmentation is related to the more general concept of modularity
Modularity (biology)

Many organisms consist of modules, both anatomically and in their metabolism. Anatomical modules are usually segments or organs. When we look at illustrations of metabolic reactions, we find that they, too, are modular: we can clearly identify, for instance, the citric acid cycle as a complex network that has only a few interfaces with other...
.

Examples of segmented animals are the annelid
Annelid

The annelids, collectively called Annelida , are a large Scientific classification of animals comprising the segmented worms, with about 15,000 modern species including the well-known earthworms and leeches....
s and arthropod
Arthropod

Arthropods are animals belonging to the Scientific classification Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others....
s. However it does not exist in cnidarians. Vertebrata are also inherited in a segmented way, making it easy for those animals to adapt to have the correct number of these spinal cord segments
Spinal cord

The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular bundle of neuron and glia that extends from the brain. The brain and spinal cord together make up the central nervous system....
 in the vertebral column
Vertebral column

In human anatomy, the vertebral column is a column of 24 vertebrae, the sacrum, intervertebral discs, and the coccyx situated in the dorsum aspect of the torso, separated by spinal discs....
. This has been extensively studied in mice
Mouse

A mouse is a small animal that belongs to one of numerous species of rodents. The best known mouse species is the House Mouse . It is also a popular pet....
. Among plants, the horsetail
Horsetail

Equisetum is the only living genus in the Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds. They are commonly known as horsetails....
s are a clear example of segmentation.

Segmentation allows for a high degree of specialization of bodily regions. This regional specialization is seen to some degree in annelids, but is an evolutionary development of the body plan of arthropods.

The process of establishing such a segmented body pattern is discussed in morphogenesis
Morphogenesis

Morphogenesis , is the physical process that gives rise to the shape of an organism. It is one of three fundamental aspects of developmental biology along with the control of cell growth and cellular differentiation....
.