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Neuroanatomy of sea spiders implies an appendicular origin of the protocerebral segment

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  • Amy Maxmen

    (Harvard University)

  • William E. Browne

    (University of Hawaii)

  • Mark Q. Martindale

    (University of Hawaii)

  • Gonzalo Giribet

    (Harvard University)

Abstract

Arthropods get a head The arthropod body is made up of distinct body segments plus the head region. The latter causes a problem, known as the ‘arthropod head problem’, which is to explain how modern arthropod heads evolved so many different patterns of organization. A new study of modern sea spiders suggests that the scary claws of ancient Cambrian arthropods, (‘great appendages’, in the literature) have modern analogues, seen in the neuroanatomical detail of developing larvae. This excludes the theory that the anterior segment was primitively limb-free, and suggests that the arthropods lost these anteriormost limbs during evolution. A victim of this work is the ‘acron’, a hypothetical non-segmental region introduced to explain the lack of appendages in extant arthropods: they were simply hiding.

Suggested Citation

  • Amy Maxmen & William E. Browne & Mark Q. Martindale & Gonzalo Giribet, 2005. "Neuroanatomy of sea spiders implies an appendicular origin of the protocerebral segment," Nature, Nature, vol. 437(7062), pages 1144-1148, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:437:y:2005:i:7062:d:10.1038_nature03984
    DOI: 10.1038/nature03984
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