Pelvic claspers confirm chondrichthyan-like internal fertilization in arthrodires

Per Ahlberg, Kate Trinajstic (), Zerina Johanson and John Long
Additional contact information
Per Ahlberg: Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 18A, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden
Kate Trinajstic: Western Australian Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia 6102, Australia
Zerina Johanson: Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
John Long: Museum Victoria, PO Box 666, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia

Nature, 2009, vol. 460, issue 7257, 888-889

Abstract: Early internal fertilization The placoderms are a large group of primitive armoured fishes. Although wholly extinct, their enigmatic anatomy could hold clues to the evolution of the jawed vertebrates (gnathostomes), including ourselves. A new fossil discovery has clarified the mechanism of reproduction in Incisoscutum, an organism of particular interest as a member of the arthrodires, a large and important placoderm group. A well preserved fossil of an adult Incisoscutum ritcchiei female was recently found with embryos, evidence that fertilization was internal. The new fossil is of a male of the species, showing the presence of penis-like pelvic claspers similar to those found in fossil Ptyctodontida (a group of unarmoured placoderms) and in sharks.

Date: 2009
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature08176 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:460:y:2009:i:7257:d:10.1038_nature08176

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/nature08176

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().