What is "body plan"

Plan \Plan\, n. [F., fr. L. planus flat, level. See Plain, a.]

1. A draught or form; properly, a representation drawn on a plane, as a map or a chart; especially, a top view, as of a machine, or the representation or delineation of a horizontal section of anything, as of a building; a graphic representation; a diagram.

2. A scheme devised; a method of action or procedure expressed or described in language; a project; as, the plan of a constitution; the plan of an expedition.

   God's plans like lines pure and white unfold.
   --M. R. Smith.

3. A method; a way of procedure; a custom.

   The simple plan, That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can.
   --Wordsworth.

   Body plan, Floor plan, etc. See under Body, Floor, etc.

   Syn: Scheme; draught; delineation; plot; sketch; project; design; contrivance; device. See Scheme.

Body \Bod"y\, n.; pl. Bodies. [OE. bodi, AS. bodig; akin to OHG. botah. [root]257. Cf. Bodice.]

1. The material organized substance of an animal, whether living or dead, as distinguished from the spirit, or vital principle; the physical person.

   Absent in body, but present in spirit.
   --1 Cor. v. 3

   For of the soul the body form doth take. For soul is form, and doth the body make.
   --Spenser.

2. The trunk, or main part, of a person or animal, as distinguished from the limbs and head; the main, central, or principal part, as of a tree, army, country, etc.

   Who set the body and the limbs Of this great sport together?
   --Shak.

   The van of the king's army was led by the general; . . . in the body was the king and the prince.
   --Clarendon.

   Rivers that run up into the body of Italy.
   --Addison.

3. The real, as opposed to the symbolical; the substance, as opposed to the shadow.

   Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
   --Col. ii. 17.

4. A person; a human being; -- frequently in composition; as, anybody, nobody.

   A dry, shrewd kind of a body.
   --W. Irving.

5. A number of individuals spoken of collectively, usually as united by some common tie, or as organized for some purpose; a collective whole or totality; a corporation; as, a legislative body; a clerical body.

   A numerous body led unresistingly to the slaughter.
   --Prescott.

6. A number of things or particulars embodied in a system; a general collection; as, a great body of facts; a body of laws or of divinity.

7. Any mass or portion of matter; any substance distinct from others; as, a metallic body; a moving body; an a["e]riform body. ``A body of cold air.''
   --Huxley.

   By collision of two bodies, grind The air attrite to fire.
   --Milton.

8. Amount; quantity; extent.

9. That part of a garment covering the body, as distinguished from the parts covering the limbs.

10. The bed or box of a vehicle, on or in which the load is placed; as, a wagon body; a cart body.

11. (Print.) The shank of a type, or the depth of the shank (by which the size is indicated); as, a nonpareil face on an agate body.

12. (Geom.) A figure that has length, breadth, and thickness; any solid figure.

13. Consistency; thickness; substance; strength; as, this color has body; wine of a good body.

    Note: Colors bear a body when they are capable of being ground so fine, and of being mixed so entirely with oil, as to seem only a very thick oil of the same color.

14. (A["e]ronautics) The central, longitudinal framework of a flying machine, to which are attached the planes or a["e]rocurves, passenger accommodations, controlling and propelling apparatus, fuel tanks, etc. Also called fuselage. After body (Naut.), the part of a ship abaft the dead flat. Body cavity (Anat.), the space between the walls of the body and the inclosed viscera; the c[ae]lum; -- in mammals, divided by the diaphragm into thoracic and abdominal cavities. Body of a church, the nave. Body cloth; pl. Body cloths, a cloth or blanket for covering horses. Body clothes. (pl.)

    1. Clothing for the body; esp. underclothing.

    2. Body cloths for horses. [Obs.]
       --Addison.

       Body coat, a gentleman's dress coat.

       Body color (Paint.), a pigment that has consistency, thickness, or body, in distinction from a tint or wash.

       Body of a law (Law), the main and operative part.

       Body louse (Zo["o]l.), a species of louse ( Pediculus vestimenti), which sometimes infests the human body and clothes. See Grayback.

       Body plan (Shipbuilding), an end elevation, showing the conbour of the sides of a ship at certain points of her length.

       Body politic, the collective body of a nation or state as politically organized, or as exercising political functions; also, a corporation.
       --Wharton.

       As to the persons who compose the body politic or associate themselves, they take collectively the name of ``people'', or ``nation''.
       --Bouvier.

       Body servant, a valet.

       The bodies seven (Alchemy), the metals corresponding to the planets. [Obs.]

       Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe (=call), Mars yren (=iron), Mercurie quicksilver we clepe, Saturnus lead, and Jupiter is tin, and Venus coper.
       --Chaucer.

       Body snatcher, one who secretly removes without right or authority a dead body from a grave, vault, etc.; a resurrectionist.

       Body snatching (Law), the unauthorized removal of a dead body from the grave; usually for the purpose of dissection.

A body plan (also written bodyplan ), Bauplan (German plural Baupläne), or ground plan is "an assemblage of morphological features shared among many members of a phylum-level group". The vertebrate body plan is one of many: invertebrates consist of many phyla.

This term, usually applied to animals, envisages a "blueprint" encompassing aspects such as symmetry, segmentation and limb disposition.

Body plans have historically been considered to have evolved in a flash in the Cambrian explosion, but a more nuanced understanding of animal evolution suggests the gradual development of body plans throughout the early Palaeozoic.