Animal evolution: stiff or squishy notochord origins?

Andreas Hejnol; Christopher J Lowe

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2014.10.059

Animal evolution: stiff or squishy notochord origins?

Curr Biol. 2014 Dec 1;24(23):R1131-3. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.10.059. Epub 2014 Dec 1.

Authors

Andreas Hejnol¹, Christopher J Lowe²

Affiliations

¹ Sars International Centre of Marine Molecular Biology, University of Bergen, Norway; Hopkins Marine Station, Department of Biology, Stanford University, USA. Electronic address: andreas.hejnol@sars.uib.no.
² Sars International Centre of Marine Molecular Biology, University of Bergen, Norway; Hopkins Marine Station, Department of Biology, Stanford University, USA. Electronic address: clowe@stanford.edu.

PMID: 25465334
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2014.10.059

Abstract

The notochord is considered an evolutionary novelty and one of the defining characters of chordates. A new study of an annelid challenges this view and proposes an earlier evolutionary origin in the most recent common ancestor of chordates and annelids.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Animals
Biological Evolution*
Mesoderm / embryology*
Notochord / embryology*
Polychaeta / classification*
Polychaeta / embryology*