海鞘 / Sea squirt

My swimming babies have tails: a tiny clue connecting sea squirts with your big vertebrate family!
我的宝宝会摆尾游泳——这个小线索，把海鞘和你庞大的脊椎动物家族联系起来！

Sources
The pre-vertebrate origins of neurogenic placodes
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14657
The draft genome of Ciona intestinalis: insights into chordate and vertebrate origins.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1080049
Species reference
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ascidiacea

Research context
Sea-squirt larvae reveal features of our chordate heritage. Developmental studies help explain how older sensory-cell programs were recruited into the more elaborate nervous systems of vertebrates.