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Phylogenomic and comparative genomic analyses support a single evolutionary origin of flatfish asymmetry
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Open AccessBony-fish-like scales in a Silurian maxillate placoderm
Major groups of jawed vertebrates exhibit contrasting conditions of dermal plates and scales. But the transition between these conditions remains unclear due to rare information on taxa occupying key phylogene...
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Open AccessFossil evidence for a pharyngeal origin of the vertebrate pectoral girdle
The origin of vertebrate paired appendages is one of the most investigated and debated examples of evolutionary novelty1–7. Paired appendages are widely considered as key innovations that enabled new opportunitie...
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Exceptional fossil preservation and evolution of the ray-finned fish brain
Brain anatomy provides key evidence for the relationships between ray-finned fishes1, but two major limitations obscure our understanding of neuroanatomical evolution in this major vertebrate group. First, the de...
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A Late Devonian actinopterygian suggests high lineage survivorship across the end-Devonian mass extinction
Many accounts of the early history of actinopterygians (ray-finned fishes) posit that the end-Devonian mass extinction had a major influence on their evolution. Existing phylogenies suggest this episode could ...
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Prolonged morphological expansion of spiny-rayed fishes following the end-Cretaceous
Spiny-rayed fishes (Acanthomorpha) dominate modern marine habitats and account for more than a quarter of all living vertebrate species. Previous time-calibrated phylogenies and patterns from the fossil record...
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Open AccessThe rapid evolution of lungfish durophagy
Innovations relating to the consumption of hard prey are implicated in ecological shifts in marine ecosystems as early as the mid-Paleozoic. Lungfishes represent the first and longest-ranging lineage of duroph...
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Open AccessInternal cranial anatomy of Early Triassic species of †Saurichthys (Actinopterygii: †Saurichthyiformes): implications for the phylogenetic placement of †saurichthyiforms
†Saurichthyiformes were a successful group of latest Permian–Middle Jurassic predatory actinopterygian fishes and constituted important, widely-distributed components of Triassic marine and freshwater faunas. T.....
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An inverse latitudinal gradient in speciation rate for marine fishes
Far more species of organisms are found in the tropics than in temperate and polar regions, but the evolutionary and ecological causes of this pattern remain controversial1,2. Tropical marine fish communities are...
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Explosive diversification of marine fishes at the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary
The Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K–Pg) mass extinction is linked to the rapid emergence of ecologically divergent higher taxa (for example, families and orders) across terrestrial vertebrates, but its impact on the ...
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Open AccessA new stem sarcopterygian illuminates patterns of character evolution in early bony fishes
Discoveries of putative stem sarcopterygians from the late Silurian and Early Devonian of South China have increased our knowledge of the initial diversification of osteichthyans while also highlighting incong...
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Erratum: Early members of ‘living fossil’ lineage imply later origin of modern ray-finned fishes
Nature 549, 265–268 (2017); doi:10.1038/nature23654 Owing to an error during the production process, nine Supplementary Data files were inadvertently omitted from the online version of this Letter. The missing...
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Early members of ‘living fossil’ lineage imply later origin of modern ray-finned fishes
High-resolution scans of fossilized fish skulls suggest that modern ray-finned fishes originated later than previously thought and necessitate reconsideration of the evolution of this major vertebrate group.
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Open AccessPhylogenomic analysis of carangimorph fishes reveals flatfish asymmetry arose in a blink of the evolutionary eye
Flatfish cranial asymmetry represents one of the most remarkable morphological innovations among vertebrates, and has fueled vigorous debate on the manner and rate at which strikingly divergent phenotypes evol...
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Open AccessExtinction of fish-shaped marine reptiles associated with reduced evolutionary rates and global environmental volatility
Despite their profound adaptations to the aquatic realm and their apparent success throughout the Triassic and the Jurassic, ichthyosaurs became extinct roughly 30 million years before the end-Cretaceous mass ...
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Actinopterygians: The Ray-Finned Fishes—An Explosion of Diversity
Living ray-finned fishes number approximately 30,000 species, roughly equal to modern lobe-finned fishes plus tetrapods combined. The fossil record of ray-finned fishes extends to the Early Devonian (ca. 415 M...
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Osteichthyan-like cranial conditions in an Early Devonian stem gnathostome
A new analysis of a 415-million-year-old fossil fish head originally described as from an early osteichthyan (bony fish) puts it instead as the sister group of the gnathosomes (jawed vertebrates), and suggests...
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The origin and early phylogenetic history of jawed vertebrates
Fossils of early gnathostomes (or jawed vertebrates) have been the focus of study for nearly two centuries. They yield key clues about the evolutionary assembly of the group's common body plan, as well the div...
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Open AccessPhylogenetic informativeness reconciles ray-finned fish molecular divergence times
Discordance among individual molecular age estimates, or between molecular age estimates and the fossil record, is observed in many clades across the Tree of Life. This discordance is attributed to a variety o...
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A jaw-drop** fossil fish
The ancestors of modern jawed vertebrates are commonly portrayed as fishes with a shark-like appearance. But a stunning fossil discovery from China puts a new face on the original jawed vertebrate. See Article ...
