TY - JOUR
T1 - Brain and eyes of Kerygmachela reveal protocerebral ancestry of the panarthropod head
AU - Park, Tae Yoon S.
AU - Kihm, Ji Hoon
AU - Woo, Jusun
AU - Park, Changkun
AU - Lee, Won Young
AU - Smith, M. Paul
AU - Harper, David A.T.
AU - Young, Fletcher
AU - Nielsen, Arne T.
AU - Vinther, Jakob
PY - 2018/3/9
Y1 - 2018/3/9
N2 - Recent discoveries of fossil nervous tissue in Cambrian fossils have allowed researchers to trace the origin and evolution of the complex arthropod head and brain based on stem groups close to the origin of the clade, rather than on extant, highly derived members. Here we show that Kerygmachela from Sirius Passet, North Greenland, a primitive stem-group euarthropod, exhibits a diminutive (protocerebral) brain that innervates both the eyes and frontal appendages. It has been surmised, based on developmental evidence, that the ancestor of vertebrates and arthropods had a tripartite brain, which is refuted by the fossil evidence presented here. Furthermore, based on the discovery of eyes in Kerygmachela, we suggest that the complex compound eyes in arthropods evolved from simple ocelli, present in onychophorans and tardigrades, rather than through the incorporation of a set of modified limbs.
AB - Recent discoveries of fossil nervous tissue in Cambrian fossils have allowed researchers to trace the origin and evolution of the complex arthropod head and brain based on stem groups close to the origin of the clade, rather than on extant, highly derived members. Here we show that Kerygmachela from Sirius Passet, North Greenland, a primitive stem-group euarthropod, exhibits a diminutive (protocerebral) brain that innervates both the eyes and frontal appendages. It has been surmised, based on developmental evidence, that the ancestor of vertebrates and arthropods had a tripartite brain, which is refuted by the fossil evidence presented here. Furthermore, based on the discovery of eyes in Kerygmachela, we suggest that the complex compound eyes in arthropods evolved from simple ocelli, present in onychophorans and tardigrades, rather than through the incorporation of a set of modified limbs.
KW - Palaeontology
KW - Evolutionary developmental biology
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85044003744&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-018-03464-w
DO - 10.1038/s41467-018-03464-w
M3 - Article (Academic Journal)
C2 - 29523785
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 9
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
M1 - 1019
ER -