Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

Dr. Martin D. Brazeau

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park)

Senior Lecturer
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 2254m.brazeau

 
 
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Location

 

W3.1KennedySilwood Park

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Brazeau:2023:10.1038/s41586-023-06702-4,
author = {Brazeau, M and Castiello, M and El, Fassi El Fehri A and Hamilton, L and Ivanov, AO and Johanson, Z and Friedman, M},
doi = {10.1038/s41586-023-06702-4},
journal = {Nature},
pages = {550--554},
title = {Fossil evidence for a pharyngeal origin of the vertebrate pectoral girdle},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06702-4},
volume = {623},
year = {2023}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The origin of vertebrate paired appendages is one of the most investigated and debated examples of evolutionary novelty. Paired appendages are widely considered key innovations that allowed new opportunities for controlled swimming and gill ventilation and were prerequisites for the eventual transition from water to land. The last 150 years of debate has been shaped by two contentious theories: the ventrolateral fin-fold hypothesis and the archipterygium hypothesis. The latter proposes that fins and girdles evolved from an ancestral gill arch. Although tantalizing developmental evidence has revived interest in this idea, it is apparently unsupported by fossil evidence. Here we present fossil evidence of a pharyngeal basis for the vertebrate shoulder girdle. We use CT scanning to reveal details of the braincase of Kolymaspis sibirica, a placoderm fish from the Early Devonian of Siberia that suggests a pharyngeal component of the shoulder. We combine these findings with refreshed comparative anatomy of placoderms and jawless outgroups to place the origin of the shoulder girdle on the sixth branchial arch. These findings provide a novel framework for understanding the origin of the pectoral girdle. Our new evidence clarifies the location of the presumptive head-trunk interface in jawless fishes and explains the constraint on branchial arch number in gnathostomes. The results revive a key aspect of the archipterygium hypothesis, but also reconciles it with the ventrolateral fin fold model.
AU  - Brazeau,M
AU  - Castiello,M
AU  - El,Fassi El Fehri A
AU  - Hamilton,L
AU  - Ivanov,AO
AU  - Johanson,Z
AU  - Friedman,M
DO  - 10.1038/s41586-023-06702-4
EP  - 554
PY  - 2023///
SN  - 0028-0836
SP  - 550
TI  - Fossil evidence for a pharyngeal origin of the vertebrate pectoral girdle
T2  - Nature
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06702-4
UR  - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06702-4
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/107350
VL  - 623
ER  -
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