Lamprey-like gills in a gnathostome-related Devonian jawless vertebrate

Philippe Janvier (), Sylvain Desbiens, Jason A. Willett and Marius Arsenault
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Philippe Janvier: UMR 5143, CNRS, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, CP38
Sylvain Desbiens: Parc National de Miguasha
Jason A. Willett: Parc National de Miguasha
Marius Arsenault: Parc National de Miguasha

Nature, 2006, vol. 440, issue 7088, 1183-1185

Abstract: Jaw, jaw not gill, gill Gill pouches are present in living cyclostomes (hagfish and lampreys) and their fossil predecessors. Their presence was suspected in all jawless vertebrates, but there has been little solid evidence to back up this idea. Now lamprey-like gills have been identified in a well preserved 370-million-year-old specimen of Endeiolepis, known as a ‘naked anaspid’ as it has no scales so was probably slimy. The anaspids are stem gnathostomes — jawless vertebrates more closely related to jawed vertebrates than to the cyclostomes — so this discovery suggests that gill pouches were present in the last common ancestor of all vertebrates, and were later lost in jawed vertebrates.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04471

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