0000000000288568
AUTHOR
Henning Blom
Jaws and teeth of the earliest bony fishes
Extant jawed vertebrates, or gnathostomes, fall into two major monophyletic groups, namely chondrichthyans (cartilaginous fishes) and osteichthyans (bony fishes and tetrapods). Fossil representatives of the osteichthyan crown group are known from the latest Silurian period, 418 million years (Myr) ago, to the present. By contrast, stem chondrichthyans and stem osteichthyans are still largely unknown. Two extinct Palaeozoic groups, the acanthodians and placoderms, may fall into these stem groups or the common stem group of gnathostomes, but their relationships and monophyletic status are both debated. Here we report unambiguous evidence for osteichthyan characters in jaw bones referred to th…
The biostratigraphical and palaeogeographical framework of the earliest diversification of tetrapods (Late Devonian)
International audience; The earliest diversification of tetrapods is dated as Late Devonian based on 10 localities worldwide that have yielded bone remains. At least 18 different species are known from these localities. Their ages span the "middle"-late Frasnian to latest Famennian time interval, with three localities in the Frasnian, one at the F/F transition (though this one is not securely dated) and six in the Famennian. These localities encompass a wide variety of environments, from true marine conditions of the nearshore neritic province, to fluvial or lacustrine conditions. However, it does not seem possible to characterize a freshwater assemblage in the Upper Old Red Sandstone based…
Testing models of dental development in the earliest bony vertebrates, Andreolepis and Lophosteus
Theories on the development and evolution of teeth have long been biased by the fallacy that chondrichthyans reflect the ancestral condition for jawed vertebrates. However, correctly resolving the nature of the primitive vertebrate dentition is challenged by a dearth of evidence on dental development in primitive osteichthyans. Jaw elements from the Silurian–Devonian stem-osteichthyansLophosteusandAndreolepishave been described to bear a dentition arranged in longitudinal rows and vertical files, reminiscent of a pattern of successional development. We tested this inference, using synchrotron radiation X-ray tomographic microscopy (SRXTM) to reveal the pattern of skeletal development preser…
Ventastega curonica and the origin of tetrapod morphology.
The gap in our understanding of the evolutionary transition from fish to tetrapod is beginning to close thanks to the discovery of new intermediate forms such as Tiktaalik roseae. Here we narrow it further by presenting the skull, exceptionally preserved braincase, shoulder girdle and partial pelvis of Ventastega curonica from the Late Devonian of Latvia, a transitional intermediate form between the 'elpistostegids' Panderichthys and Tiktaalik and the Devonian tetrapods (limbed vertebrates) Acanthostega and Ichthyostega. Ventastega is the most primitive Devonian tetrapod represented by extensive remains, and casts light on a part of the phylogeny otherwise only represented by fragmentary ta…