IT'S A LONG WAY FROM AMPHIOXUS
(Mark Graham)

A fishlike thing appeared among the annelids one day
It hadn't any terrapods or cetae to display
It hadn't any eyes or jaws or ventral nervous chord
But it had a lot of gillslits and it had a notochord

Cho
It's a long way from amphioxus
It's a long way to us
It's a long way from amphioxus
To the meanest human cuss
So goodbye to fins and gillslits
Hello lungs and hair,
It's a long, long way from amphioxus
But we all came from there

Well, it wasn't much to look at and it scarce knew how to swim
Asterius was very sure it hadn't come from him
The mollusks wouldn't own it and the arthropods got sore
So the poor thing had to burrow in the sand along the shore

Cho

It burrowed in the sand before it grabbed in with its tail
And said gillslits and myotomes are all to no avail
I've grown some metapleural folds and sport an oral hood
But all these fine new characters don't do me any good

Cho

He soaked a while down in the sand without a bit of pep
Then he stiffened up his notochord and said: "I'll beat 'em yet"
They laugh and show their ignorance, but I don't mind their jeers
Just wait until they see me in a hundred million years

Cho

My notochord will stiffen to a chain of vertebrae
As fins, my metapleural folds will agitate the sea
My tiny dorsal nervous chord will be a mighty brain
And vertebrates will dominate the animal domain

Cho

Copyright Mark Graham
@animal @humor @evolution
filename[ AMPHIOXU
playexe TIPRARY
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