Initial radiation of jaws demonstrated stability despite faunal and environmental change

Philip S. L. Anderson (), Matt Friedman, Martin D. Brazeau and Emily J. Rayfield
Additional contact information
Philip S. L. Anderson: University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK
Matt Friedman: University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3AN, UK
Martin D. Brazeau: Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity at the Humboldt University in Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany
Emily J. Rayfield: University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK

Nature, 2011, vol. 476, issue 7359, 206-209

Abstract: Jawed dominance a long time coming The first jawed vertebrates, or gnathostomes, were vastly outnumbered by their jaw-less relatives. Today, more than 99% of vertebrates have jaws. It is therefore tempting to conclude that the evolution of jaws was key to the rise of the vertebrates. But matters might have been more complicated, according to a quantitative biomechanical analysis of early gnathostome mandibles. Anderson et al. show that early vertebrates had many jaw designs, but ended up with a few tried-and-tested conservative forms long before the jaw-less vertebrates went into decline.

Date: 2011
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DOI: 10.1038/nature10207

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