Amphioxus

<br>Amphioxus<br>by Sam Hinton<br>A fish-like thing appeared among the annelids one day.<br>It hadn`t any parapods nor cetae to display.<br>It hadn`t any lungs, nor jaws, nor ventral nervous cord,<br>But it had a lot of gill slits and it had a notochord.<br> Chorus:<br>It`s a<br> long way from Amphioxus. It`s a long way to us.<br>It`s a long way from Amphioxus to the meanest human cuss.<br>Well, it`s goodbye to fins and gill slits, and welcome, lungs and hair!<br>It`s a long, long way from Amphioxus, but we all came from there.<br>He wasn`t much to look at and he scarce knew how to swim,<br>And Nereus was very sure he hadn`t come from him.<br>The mollusks wouldn`t own it and the arthropods got sore,<br>So the poor thing had to burrow in the sand along the shore.<br> (chorus)<br>He burrowed in the sand before a crab could nip his tail,<br>And he said "Gill slits and miotomes are all to no avail.<br>I`ve grown a metapleural fold and sport an aural hood,<br>But all these fine new characters don`t do me any good.<br> (chorus)<br>He sulked awhile down in the sand without a lot of pep,<br>Then he stiffened up his notochord and said, "I`ll beat `em yet!<br>Let `em laugh and show their ignorance. I don`t mind their jeers.<br>Just wait until they see me in hundred million years.<br> (chorus)<br>My notochord shall change into a chain of vertebrae<br>And as fins my metapleural folds shall agitate the sea.<br>My tiny ventral nervous cord will be a mighty brain<br>And the vertebrates shall dominate the animal domain.<br> (chorus)