Homology of the cranial vault in birds: new insights based on embryonic fate-mapping and character analysis.

ABSTRACT: Bones of the cranial vault appear to be highly conserved among tetrapod vertebrates. Moreover, bones identified with the same name are assumed to be evolutionarily homologous. However, recent developmental studies reveal a key difference in the embryonic origin of cranial vault bones between representatives of two amniote lineages, mammals and birds, thereby challenging this view. In the mouse, the frontal is derived from cranial neural crest (CNC) but the parietal is derived from mesoderm, placing the CNC-mesoderm boundary at the suture between these bones. In the chicken, this boundary is located within the frontal. This difference and related data have led several recent authors to suggest that bones of the avian cranial vault are misidentified and should be renamed. To elucidate this a

SUBMITTER: Maddin HC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5108967 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature