2010
DOI: 10.1038/nature08745
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Non-random decay of chordate characters causes bias in fossil interpretation

Abstract: Exceptional preservation of soft-bodied Cambrian chordates provides our only direct information on the origin of vertebrates. Fossil chordates from this interval offer crucial insights into how the distinctive body plan of vertebrates evolved, but reading this pre-biomineralization fossil record is fraught with difficulties, leading to controversial and contradictory interpretations. The cause of these difficulties is taphonomic: we lack data on when and how important characters change as they decompose, resul… Show more

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Cited by 186 publications
(281 citation statements)
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“…S2 C and D) (9). Loss of phylogenetically informative characters through decay recalls problems encountered with the fossil record of metazoans (12). However, with Precambrian microfossils, there is an important additional factor to consider: the mimicking of phylogenetically informative characters arising from mineral growth.…”
Section: The Gunflint Chert: New Analytical Techniquesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…S2 C and D) (9). Loss of phylogenetically informative characters through decay recalls problems encountered with the fossil record of metazoans (12). However, with Precambrian microfossils, there is an important additional factor to consider: the mimicking of phylogenetically informative characters arising from mineral growth.…”
Section: The Gunflint Chert: New Analytical Techniquesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…[51] The same decay experiments allowed the chevron-shaped structures in Conopiscius, a Carboniferous chordate, to be interpreted as myomeres rather than external scales, and also indicated that a decay-resistant cuticle was not necessarily present in Pikaia from the Burgess Shale. [51,55] Decay in seawater has now been monitored in a range of taxa in laboratory experiments (see Table S1, Supporting Information): anthozoans, [56] annelids, [48] chaetognaths, [57] priapulids, [18] onychophorans, [17] pterobranchs, [58] enteropneusts, [59] nonvertebrate chordates, [20] and cyclostomes. [60] Thus the sequence of character loss has been determined for taxa representing most clades of eumetazoans.…”
Section: Boxmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The phylogenetic position of early chordate-like fossils, for example, has attracted particular attention following the proposal of "stemward slippage." [20] As chordates decay, characters are lost in the opposite order to their stepwise acquisition during the evolutionary transition from the chordate stem lineage to the [112] C) Belemnotheutis antiquus (NHMUK 25966), a Jurassic stem group decabrachian (belemnoid) from Christian Malford, Wiltshire, UK, preserving creamy colored musculature replaced by calcium phosphate and organic arm hooks. D) Fossil Anolis lizard preserved in Miocene Dominican amber.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Conodont vertebrates also first appeared in the Cambrian and are presumed to have had large eyes 6 . Except for the optical system, as in the calcified lenses of trilobite and ostracod arthropods, other parts of the visual system are not usually preserved in the fossil record, because the soft tissue of the eye and the brain decay rapidly after death, such as within 64 days and 11 days, respectively 7 . Only five studies have reported a fossilized visual receptor [8][9][10][11] or a mould equivalent 12 , all of which involved arthropod eyes.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%