Our ideas about vertebrate evolution challenged by a new tree of life

Benedict King; John Long; Mike Lee

Our ideas about vertebrate evolution challenged by a new tree of life

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Abstract

The placoderms were a diverse group of ancient armoured fishes and it’s widely believed that they are ancestral to virtually all vertebrates alive today, including humans.

Placoderms dominated aquatic environments for 70 million years until they suddenly went extinct some 360 million years ago, paving the way for modern bony fish (osteichthyans) and sharks and rays (chondrichthyans).

The earliest vertebrates were jawless fishes, and placoderms were among the earliest fishes to evolve jaws, an adaptive breakthrough that contributed to their rapid success.

Several studies have strongly argued that placoderms are the direct ancestors of all other jawed vertebrates, a huge branch of the tree of life that includes mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and most fish.

Original language	English
Pages	1-5
Number of pages	5
Specialist publication	The Conversation
Publisher	The Conversation
Publication status	Published - 6 Dec 2016

Keywords

Evolution
Fish
Palaeontology
Human evolution

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Final published versionFinal published version, 1.65 MBLicence: CC BY

https://theconversation.com/our-ideas-about-vertebrate-evolution-challenged-by-a-new-tree-of-life-68416Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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AB - The placoderms were a diverse group of ancient armoured fishes and it’s widely believed that they are ancestral to virtually all vertebrates alive today, including humans.Placoderms dominated aquatic environments for 70 million years until they suddenly went extinct some 360 million years ago, paving the way for modern bony fish (osteichthyans) and sharks and rays (chondrichthyans).The earliest vertebrates were jawless fishes, and placoderms were among the earliest fishes to evolve jaws, an adaptive breakthrough that contributed to their rapid success.Several studies have strongly argued that placoderms are the direct ancestors of all other jawed vertebrates, a huge branch of the tree of life that includes mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and most fish.

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KW - Fish

KW - Palaeontology

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Our ideas about vertebrate evolution challenged by a new tree of life

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Keywords

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