Question

whats is the classfication of cephalochordata

Answer 1

The first individual of this group was des­cribed by Pallas in 1778. He regarded the speci­men as a slug and named it Umax lanceolatus. Yarrell (1836) studied the animal in detail and gave the name Amphioxus lanceolatus. Costa (1834) suggested the name of the genus as Branchiostoma. Since then the biological name of the genus has been established as Branchiostoma according to the law of priority.
Marshall and Williams (1964) pertain a single class Cephalochordate under the sub­phylum Cephalochordata, but without any order under the class Cephalochordate. Godeaux (1974) comprises a single order Amphioxi under the subphylum Cephalochordata but without any class.

Berrill (1950), Barrington (1979), Young (1981), Romer and Parson (1986), Ruppert and Barnes (1994), Kent and Miller (1997), Anderson (1998), Pechenik (2000) and Kardong (2002) do not mention any class and order under Cephalochordata. We follow in this text book Young’s (1981) scheme, adopted from the book “The Life of Vertebrates 

Answer 2

Cephalochordate, also called acrania, any of more than two dozen species belonging to the subphylum Cephalochordata of the phylum Chordata. Small, fishlike marine invertebrates, they probably are the closest living relatives of the vertebrates.