The oldest three-dimensionally preserved vertebrate neurocranium

Richard P. Dearden (), Agnese Lanzetti, Sam Giles, Zerina Johanson, Andy S. Jones, Stephan Lautenschlager, Emma Randle and Ivan J. Sansom
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Richard P. Dearden: University of Birmingham
Agnese Lanzetti: University of Birmingham
Sam Giles: University of Birmingham
Zerina Johanson: Natural History Museum
Andy S. Jones: University of Birmingham
Stephan Lautenschlager: University of Birmingham
Emma Randle: University of Birmingham
Ivan J. Sansom: University of Birmingham

Nature, 2023, vol. 621, issue 7980, 782-787

Abstract: Abstract The neurocranium is an integral part of the vertebrate head, itself a major evolutionary innovation1,2. However, its early history remains poorly understood, with great dissimilarity in form between the two living vertebrate groups: gnathostomes (jawed vertebrates) and cyclostomes (hagfishes and lampreys)2,3. The 100 Myr gap separating the Cambrian appearance of vertebrates4–6 from the earliest three-dimensionally preserved vertebrate neurocrania7 further obscures the origins of modern states. Here we use computed tomography to describe the cranial anatomy of an Ordovician stem-group gnathostome: Eriptychius americanus from the Harding Sandstone of Colorado, USA8. A fossilized head of Eriptychius preserves a symmetrical set of cartilages that we interpret as the preorbital neurocranium, enclosing the fronts of laterally placed orbits, terminally located mouth, olfactory bulbs and pineal organ. This suggests that, in the earliest gnathostomes, the neurocranium filled out the space between the dermal skeleton and brain, like in galeaspids, osteostracans and placoderms and unlike in cyclostomes2. However, these cartilages are not fused into a single neurocranial unit, suggesting that this is a derived gnathostome trait. Eriptychius fills a major temporal and phylogenetic gap in our understanding of the evolution of the gnathostome head, revealing a neurocranium with an anatomy unlike that of any previously described vertebrate.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06538-y

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