standard chordate features, including long, tadpole-like tails. Their larva also have rudimentary brains, light sensors and tilt sensors.

The smallest of the three groups of tunicates is the Appendicularia. They retain tadpole-like shapes and active swimming all their lives, and were for a long time regarded as larvae of the other two groups.

The other two groups, the sea squirts and the salps, lose the notochord, the nerve cord, and the post-anal tail as they

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