Germ Layers
Caspar Friedrich Wolff observed organization of the early embryo in leaf-like layers. In 1817, Heinz Christian Pander discovered three primordial germ layers while studying chick embryos. Between 1850 and 1855, Robert Remak had further refined the germ cell layer concept, and introduced into English were the terms "mesoderm" by Huxley in 1871 and "ectoderm" and "endoderm" by Lankester in 1873.
Among animals, sponges show the simplest organization, having a single germ layer. Although they have differentiated cells (e.g. collar cells), they lack true tissue coordination. Diploblastic animals, Cnidaria and Ctenophora, show an increase in complexity, having two germ layers, the endoderm and ectoderm. Diploblastic animals are organized into recognisable tissues. All higher animals (from flatworms to humans) are triploblastic, possessing a mesoderm in addition to the germ layers found in Diploblasts. Triploblastic animals develop recognisable organs.
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