IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v4y2013i1d10.1038_ncomms3570.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exceptional fossil preservation demonstrates a new mode of axial skeleton elongation in early ray-finned fishes

Author

Listed:
  • Erin E. Maxwell

    (Paläontologisches Institut und Museum, Universität Zürich)

  • Heinz Furrer

    (Paläontologisches Institut und Museum, Universität Zürich)

  • Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra

    (Paläontologisches Institut und Museum, Universität Zürich)

Abstract

Elongate body plans have evolved independently multiple times in vertebrates, and involve either an increase in the number or in the length of the vertebrae. Here, we describe a new mechanism of body elongation in saurichthyids, an extinct group of elongate early ray-finned fishes. The rare preservation of soft tissue in a specimen of Saurichthys curionii from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian) of Switzerland provides significant new information on the relationship between the musculature and the skeleton. This new fossil material shows that elongation in these fishes results from doubling the number of neural arch-like elements per myomeric segment. This unique way of generating an elongate body plan demonstrates the evolutionary lability of the vertebral column in non-teleostean fishes. The shape and arrangement of preserved myosepta suggest that S. curionii was not a highly flexible fish, in spite of the increase in the number of neural arch-like elements.

Suggested Citation

  • Erin E. Maxwell & Heinz Furrer & Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra, 2013. "Exceptional fossil preservation demonstrates a new mode of axial skeleton elongation in early ray-finned fishes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 4(1), pages 1-7, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3570
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3570
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3570
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms3570?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:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3570. 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.