IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v10y2019i1d10.1038_s41467-019-10032-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The pharynx of the stem-chondrichthyan Ptomacanthus and the early evolution of the gnathostome gill skeleton

Author

Listed:
  • Richard P. Dearden

    (Imperial College London)

  • Christopher Stockey

    (Imperial College London
    University of Leicester)

  • Martin D. Brazeau

    (Imperial College London
    Natural History Museum)

Abstract

The gill apparatus of gnathostomes (jawed vertebrates) is fundamental to feeding and ventilation and a focal point of classic hypotheses on the origin of jaws and paired appendages. The gill skeletons of chondrichthyans (sharks, batoids, chimaeras) have often been assumed to reflect ancestral states. However, only a handful of early chondrichthyan gill skeletons are known and palaeontological work is increasingly challenging other pre-supposed shark-like aspects of ancestral gnathostomes. Here we use computed tomography scanning to image the three-dimensionally preserved branchial apparatus in Ptomacanthus, a 415 million year old stem-chondrichthyan. Ptomacanthus had an osteichthyan-like compact pharynx with a bony operculum helping constrain the origin of an elongate elasmobranch-like pharynx to the chondrichthyan stem-group, rather than it representing an ancestral condition of the crown-group. A mixture of chondrichthyan-like and plesiomorphic pharyngeal patterning in Ptomacanthus challenges the idea that the ancestral gnathostome pharynx conformed to a morphologically complete ancestral type.

Suggested Citation

  • Richard P. Dearden & Christopher Stockey & Martin D. Brazeau, 2019. "The pharynx of the stem-chondrichthyan Ptomacanthus and the early evolution of the gnathostome gill skeleton," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-7, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-10032-3
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-10032-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10032-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-019-10032-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:10:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-019-10032-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.