Miniaturization during a Silurian environmental crisis generated the modern brittle star body plan
(2022) In Communications Biology 5(1).- Abstract
Pivotal anatomical innovations often seem to appear by chance when viewed through the lens of the fossil record. As a consequence, specific driving forces behind the origination of major organismal clades generally remain speculative. Here, we present a rare exception to this axiom by constraining the appearance of a diverse animal group (the living Ophiuroidea) to a single speciation event rather than hypothetical ancestors. Fossils belonging to a new pair of temporally consecutive species of brittle stars (Ophiopetagno paicei gen. et sp. nov. and Muldaster haakei gen. et sp. nov.) from the Silurian (444–419 Mya) of Sweden reveal a process of miniaturization that temporally coincides with a global extinction and environmental... (More)
Pivotal anatomical innovations often seem to appear by chance when viewed through the lens of the fossil record. As a consequence, specific driving forces behind the origination of major organismal clades generally remain speculative. Here, we present a rare exception to this axiom by constraining the appearance of a diverse animal group (the living Ophiuroidea) to a single speciation event rather than hypothetical ancestors. Fossils belonging to a new pair of temporally consecutive species of brittle stars (Ophiopetagno paicei gen. et sp. nov. and Muldaster haakei gen. et sp. nov.) from the Silurian (444–419 Mya) of Sweden reveal a process of miniaturization that temporally coincides with a global extinction and environmental perturbation known as the Mulde Event. The reduction in size from O. paicei to M. haakei forced a structural simplification of the ophiuroid skeleton through ontogenetic retention of juvenile traits, thereby generating the modern brittle star bauplan.
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- author
- Thuy, Ben ; Eriksson, Mats E. LU ; Kutscher, Manfred ; Lindgren, Johan LU ; Numberger-Thuy, Lea D. and Wright, David F.
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Communications Biology
- volume
- 5
- issue
- 1
- article number
- 14
- publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- external identifiers
-
- pmid:35013524
- scopus:85122703456
- ISSN
- 2399-3642
- DOI
- 10.1038/s42003-021-02971-9
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 2f1d2eb8-78b3-4ce7-89ff-d83b67d1e468
- date added to LUP
- 2022-03-01 11:17:10
- date last changed
- 2024-04-18 06:04:30
@article{2f1d2eb8-78b3-4ce7-89ff-d83b67d1e468,
abstract = {{<p>Pivotal anatomical innovations often seem to appear by chance when viewed through the lens of the fossil record. As a consequence, specific driving forces behind the origination of major organismal clades generally remain speculative. Here, we present a rare exception to this axiom by constraining the appearance of a diverse animal group (the living Ophiuroidea) to a single speciation event rather than hypothetical ancestors. Fossils belonging to a new pair of temporally consecutive species of brittle stars (Ophiopetagno paicei gen. et sp. nov. and Muldaster haakei gen. et sp. nov.) from the Silurian (444–419 Mya) of Sweden reveal a process of miniaturization that temporally coincides with a global extinction and environmental perturbation known as the Mulde Event. The reduction in size from O. paicei to M. haakei forced a structural simplification of the ophiuroid skeleton through ontogenetic retention of juvenile traits, thereby generating the modern brittle star bauplan.</p>}},
author = {{Thuy, Ben and Eriksson, Mats E. and Kutscher, Manfred and Lindgren, Johan and Numberger-Thuy, Lea D. and Wright, David F.}},
issn = {{2399-3642}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
publisher = {{Nature Publishing Group}},
series = {{Communications Biology}},
title = {{Miniaturization during a Silurian environmental crisis generated the modern brittle star body plan}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02971-9}},
doi = {{10.1038/s42003-021-02971-9}},
volume = {{5}},
year = {{2022}},
}