Before the Backbone: Views on the origin of the vertebratesWe cannot catechise our stony ichthyolites, as did the necromantic lady of the Arabian Nights did the coloured fishes of the lake which had once been a city, when she touched their dead bodies with her wand, and they straightaway raised their heads and rephed to her queries. We would have many a question to ask them if we could - questions never to be solved. Hugh Miller, The Old Red Sandstone When I started this book in 1991, the subject of vertebrate origins was fusty and unfashionable. Early drafts for this preface read like an extend ed complaint at the lot of traditional morphologists, cast aside by the march of modern molecular biology. But no longer - this book should reach you at a time of renewed inter est in the origin of the vertebrates, our own particular corner of creation. For although the topic has excited interest for well over a century, molec ular biology has only lately achieved the maturity necessary to test its predictions. As a legitimate field of study, it is fashionable again. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 79
Page xii
... evidence , then , the case for favouring this particular scheme of vertebrate origins over another depended more on advocacy than experiment - hence Bateson's unease . Until surprisingly recently , the textbook scheme as outlined above ...
... evidence , then , the case for favouring this particular scheme of vertebrate origins over another depended more on advocacy than experiment - hence Bateson's unease . Until surprisingly recently , the textbook scheme as outlined above ...
Page xiii
... evidence ( Jefferies , 1986 ) support a close relationship between urochordates and craniates which excludes cephalochordates . Molecular evidence supports a close link between craniates and cephalochordates : however , at the time of ...
... evidence ( Jefferies , 1986 ) support a close relationship between urochordates and craniates which excludes cephalochordates . Molecular evidence supports a close link between craniates and cephalochordates : however , at the time of ...
Page xvii
... evidence as uninformative is no help , especially as the diversity of form among deuterostomes is far greater among fossil forms than modern ones : and yet it is the modern fauna that dictates the character distributions on which ...
... evidence as uninformative is no help , especially as the diversity of form among deuterostomes is far greater among fossil forms than modern ones : and yet it is the modern fauna that dictates the character distributions on which ...
Page 2
... evidence suggests that the base of the Cambrian is perhaps no older than 540 million years ( Bowring et al . , 1993 ) . Stage names are given only for Periods in the lower Palaeozoic . ( After various sources ) . marine creatures that ...
... evidence suggests that the base of the Cambrian is perhaps no older than 540 million years ( Bowring et al . , 1993 ) . Stage names are given only for Periods in the lower Palaeozoic . ( After various sources ) . marine creatures that ...
Page 9
... evidence from adult anatomy as well as molecular phylogeny ( Wada and Satoh , 1994 ) to support the monophyly of a group containing those animals traditionally Sponges regarded as deuterostomes , even if the embryological features ...
... evidence from adult anatomy as well as molecular phylogeny ( Wada and Satoh , 1994 ) to support the monophyly of a group containing those animals traditionally Sponges regarded as deuterostomes , even if the embryological features ...
Contents
The origins of vertebrates | 84 |
Head to head | 160 |
Jefferies Calcichordate Theory | 201 |
Conclusions | 287 |
References | 305 |
Index | 337 |
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Common terms and phrases
adult amphioxus anatomy ancestor ancestry animal annelids anus appendage arthropods ascidians Berrill Berrill's bilateral body brain branchial brates calcichordate calcichordate theory calcite calcite skeleton Cambrian carpoids cells cephalochordates Cephalodiscus Ceratocystis chordates ciliated cladistics cluster coelom conodont cornutes and mitrates Cothurnocystis craniates creatures crinoids deuterostomes dexiothetism dorsal Drosophila echinoderms embryo endostyle enteropneusts evidence evolution evolutionary evolved expression Figure fossil function Garstang Gaskell Gaskell's genetic gill slits Gislén hagfishes head hemichordates Holland homeobox genes homologous Hox genes hydrocoel ideas interpretation Jefferies Lagynocystis lampreys larva lophophore mesoderm metazoan modern molecular morphological mouth muscles neoteny nerve cord nervous system neural crest notochord ontogeny Ordovician organs origin of vertebrates paedomorphosis pharynx phylogenetic phylogeny plates posterior primitive protostomes pterobranchs recapitulation reconstruction segmentation sessile somatocoel somites species stele stem structures suggests symmetry tadpole larva tail theca tion tissue tunicate tadpole urochordates ventral verte vertebrate origins vertebrates visceral water-vascular system
Popular passages
Page 160 - Fillet of a fenny snake, In the cauldron boil and bake ; Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog...
Page 84 - My story being done, She gave me for my pains a world of sighs : She swore, in faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange ; 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful...
Page 88 - According to my opinion the proboscis of the Nemerteans, which arises as an invaginable structure (entirely derived, both phylo- and ontogenetically, from the epiblast), and which passes through a part of the cerebral ganglion, is homologous with the rudimentary organ which is found in the whole series of Vertebrates without exception — the hypophysis cerebri. The proboscidian sheath of the Nemerteans is comparable in situation (and development?) with the chorda dorsalis of Vertebrates.
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Page 317 - Graham, A., Heyman, I. and Lumsden, A. (1993). Even-numbered rhombomeres control the apoptotic elimination of neural crest cells from odd-numbered rhombomeres in the chick hindbrain. Development, 119, 233-245.
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