Fossil evidence for a pharyngeal origin of the vertebrate pectoral girdle.

ABSTRACT: The origin of vertebrate paired appendages is one of the most investigated and debated examples of evolutionary novelty^1-7. Paired appendages are widely considered as key innovations that enabled new opportunities for controlled swimming and gill ventilation and were prerequisites for the eventual transition from water to land. The past 150 years of debate^8-10 has been shaped by two contentious theories^4,5: the ventrolateral fin-fold hypothesis^9,10 and the archipterygium hypothesis⁸. The latter proposes that fins and girdles evolved from an ancestral gill arch. Although studies in animal development have revived interest in this idea^11-13, it is apparently unsupported by fossil evidence. Here we present palaeontological supp

SUBMITTER: Brazeau MD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10651482 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature