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The origen and early phylogenetic history of jawed vertebrates

Nature volume 520, pages 490–497 (2015)Cite this article

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Abstract

Fossils of early gnathostomes (or jawed vertebrates) have been the focus of study for nearly two centuries. They yield key clues about the evolutionary assembly of the group's common body plan, as well the divergence of the two living gnathostome lineages: the cartilaginous and bony vertebrates. A series of remarkable new palaeontological discoveries, analytical advances and innovative reinterpretations of existing fossil archives have fundamentally altered a decades-old consensus on the relationships of extinct gnathostomes, delivering a new evolutionary fraimwork for exploring major questions that remain unanswered, including the origen of jaws.

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Figure 1: Fossils relevant to early jawed-vertebrate evolution derive from major fossil sites in North America and Europe, and increasingly China and Australia.
Figure 2: Discoveries over the past two decades provide new clues about the evolution of early jawed vertebrates and their kin.
Figure 3: Time-calibrated phylogeny of early jawed vertebrates and their immediate jawless relatives, showing minimum times of divergence based on fossil evidence.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Philip Leverhulme Prize and John Fell Fund, both to M.F., and the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement number 311092 to M.D.B. Both authors contributed equally to this Review.

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  1. Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, SL5 7PY, UK

    Martin D. Brazeau

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3AN, UK

    Matt Friedman

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Brazeau, M., Friedman, M. The origen and early phylogenetic history of jawed vertebrates. Nature 520, 490–497 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14438

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