Postcranial disparity of galeaspids and the evolution of swimming speeds in stem-gnathostomes

Zhi Kun Gai; Xianghong Lin; Xianren Shan; Humberto G Ferron Jimenez; Philip C J Donoghue

doi:10.1093/nsr/nwad050

Postcranial disparity of galeaspids and the evolution of swimming speeds in stem-gnathostomes

Zhi Kun Gai, Xianghong Lin, Xianren Shan, Humberto G Ferron Jimenez^*, Philip C J Donoghue^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Galeaspids are extinct jawless relatives of living jawed vertebrates whose contribution to understanding the evolutionary assembly of the gnathostome bodyplan has been limited by absence of postcranial remains. Here, we describe Foxaspis novemura gen. et sp. nov., based on complete articulated remains from a newly discovered Konservat-Lagerstätte in the Early Devonian (Pragian, ~410 Ma) of Guangxi, South China. F. novemura had a broad, circular dorso-ventrally compressed headshield, slender trunk and strongly asymmetrical hypochordal tail fin comprised of nine ray-like scale-covered digitations. This tail morphology contrasts with the symmetrical hypochordal tail fin of Tujiaaspis vividus, evidencing disparity in galeaspid post cranial anatomy. Analysis of swimming speed reveals galeaspids as moderately fast swimmers, capable of achieving greater cruising swimming speeds than their more derived jawless and jawed relatives. Our analyses reject the hypothesis of a driven trend towards increasingly active food acquisition which has been invoked to characterize early vertebrate evolution.

Original language	English
Article number	nwad050
Journal	National Science Review
Volume	10
Issue number	7
Early online date	27 Feb 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwad050
Publication status	Published - 1 Jul 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41972006), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB26000000), the Leverhulme Trust (RF-2022-167), Ministry for Science and Innovation and the “European Union NextGenerationEU” (RYC2021-032775-1), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant (NE/P013678/1), part of the Biosphere Evolution, Transitions and Resilience (BETR) programme, which is co-funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.

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EarlyVertEvo: MSC fellowship - Humberto Ferron
Donoghue, P. C. J. (Principal Investigator)
1/06/19 → 30/05/21
Project: Research
Neoproterozoic - Phanerozoic transition
Donoghue, P. C. J. (Principal Investigator)
9/01/17 → 31/07/22
Project: Research
Teeth and jaws: evolutionary emergence of a model organogenic system and the adaptive radiation of gnathosomes.
Donoghue, P. C. J. (Principal Investigator)
1/10/09 → 1/10/13
Project: Research

Cite this

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title = "Postcranial disparity of galeaspids and the evolution of swimming speeds in stem-gnathostomes",

abstract = "Galeaspids are extinct jawless relatives of living jawed vertebrates whose contribution to understanding the evolutionary assembly of the gnathostome bodyplan has been limited by absence of postcranial remains. Here, we describe Foxaspis novemura gen. et sp. nov., based on complete articulated remains from a newly discovered Konservat-Lagerst{\"a}tte in the Early Devonian (Pragian, \textasciitilde{}410 Ma) of Guangxi, South China. F. novemura had a broad, circular dorso-ventrally compressed headshield, slender trunk and strongly asymmetrical hypochordal tail fin comprised of nine ray-like scale-covered digitations. This tail morphology contrasts with the symmetrical hypochordal tail fin of Tujiaaspis vividus, evidencing disparity in galeaspid post cranial anatomy. Analysis of swimming speed reveals galeaspids as moderately fast swimmers, capable of achieving greater cruising swimming speeds than their more derived jawless and jawed relatives. Our analyses reject the hypothesis of a driven trend towards increasingly active food acquisition which has been invoked to characterize early vertebrate evolution. ",

author = "Gai, \{Zhi Kun\} and Xianghong Lin and Xianren Shan and \{Ferron Jimenez\}, \{Humberto G\} and Donoghue, \{Philip C J\}",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41972006), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB26000000), the Leverhulme Trust (RF-2022-167), Ministry for Science and Innovation and the “European Union NextGenerationEU” (RYC2021-032775-1), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant (NE/P013678/1), part of the Biosphere Evolution, Transitions and Resilience (BETR) programme, which is co-funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2023.",

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AU - Donoghue, Philip C J

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41972006), the Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB26000000), the Leverhulme Trust (RF-2022-167), Ministry for Science and Innovation and the “European Union NextGenerationEU” (RYC2021-032775-1), and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant (NE/P013678/1), part of the Biosphere Evolution, Transitions and Resilience (BETR) programme, which is co-funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2023.

PY - 2023/7/1

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N2 - Galeaspids are extinct jawless relatives of living jawed vertebrates whose contribution to understanding the evolutionary assembly of the gnathostome bodyplan has been limited by absence of postcranial remains. Here, we describe Foxaspis novemura gen. et sp. nov., based on complete articulated remains from a newly discovered Konservat-Lagerstätte in the Early Devonian (Pragian, ~410 Ma) of Guangxi, South China. F. novemura had a broad, circular dorso-ventrally compressed headshield, slender trunk and strongly asymmetrical hypochordal tail fin comprised of nine ray-like scale-covered digitations. This tail morphology contrasts with the symmetrical hypochordal tail fin of Tujiaaspis vividus, evidencing disparity in galeaspid post cranial anatomy. Analysis of swimming speed reveals galeaspids as moderately fast swimmers, capable of achieving greater cruising swimming speeds than their more derived jawless and jawed relatives. Our analyses reject the hypothesis of a driven trend towards increasingly active food acquisition which has been invoked to characterize early vertebrate evolution.

AB - Galeaspids are extinct jawless relatives of living jawed vertebrates whose contribution to understanding the evolutionary assembly of the gnathostome bodyplan has been limited by absence of postcranial remains. Here, we describe Foxaspis novemura gen. et sp. nov., based on complete articulated remains from a newly discovered Konservat-Lagerstätte in the Early Devonian (Pragian, ~410 Ma) of Guangxi, South China. F. novemura had a broad, circular dorso-ventrally compressed headshield, slender trunk and strongly asymmetrical hypochordal tail fin comprised of nine ray-like scale-covered digitations. This tail morphology contrasts with the symmetrical hypochordal tail fin of Tujiaaspis vividus, evidencing disparity in galeaspid post cranial anatomy. Analysis of swimming speed reveals galeaspids as moderately fast swimmers, capable of achieving greater cruising swimming speeds than their more derived jawless and jawed relatives. Our analyses reject the hypothesis of a driven trend towards increasingly active food acquisition which has been invoked to characterize early vertebrate evolution.

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DO - 10.1093/nsr/nwad050

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Postcranial disparity of galeaspids and the evolution of swimming speeds in stem-gnathostomes

Abstract

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Projects

EarlyVertEvo: MSC fellowship - Humberto Ferron

Neoproterozoic - Phanerozoic transition

Teeth and jaws: evolutionary emergence of a model organogenic system and the adaptive radiation of gnathosomes.

Cite this