A survey of the available palaeontological and recent evidence points
to the following interim conclusions: (a) animals belonging to the cho
rdate lineage occurred in the Middle Cambrian, when they were already
separated in at least three branches; (b) in the Middle Cambrian fossi
ls the notochord may have been not or not entirely differentiated, nor
did they have a perfect bilateral symmetry: myomeres, and most probab
ly the nervous system bring ''off symmetry'' by half a segment between
the right and left half of the body, just as they presently are in th
e Acrania and, incompletely, in the Copelata and Cyclostomata; (c) in
one of the Middle Cambrian taxa the skull was represented by skeletal
material corresponding to the nonsegmental portions of that of living
vertebrates and, as in living cyclostomes, probably derived entirely f
rom neuroectodermal cells from the placodes and neural crest; (d) chor
dates may have evolved from Vendian animals showing the same type of i
ncomplete bilateral symmetry; (e) the possible affinities of the Cambr
ian and recent taxa are briefly discussed.