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2 results

  • Chapter 8: - The Cambrian Explosion

  • from Part I - Introduction to the Scientific Perspective on the Past
  • Brian Villmoare, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
  • Book:
    The Evolution of Everything
    Published online:
    03 November 2022
    Print publication:
    24 November 2022, pp 100-114

  • Summary

    The Cambrian Explosion is one of the most fascinating periods in Earth’s prehistory, as here we first find animals in the fossil record. With the discovery of the Burgess Shale, we can get a sense of the enormous diversity in animals evolving in a relatively short time, as the appearance of complex multicellular organisms provided evolution with an open canvas. The chapter devotes some space to exploring the inferences made about trilobites, given the morphological diversity, social inferences, and informative anatomical structures we see in this group. With the evolution of animals, the chapter introduces the phylogeny of the large taxonomic groups, and describes the major transitions in the evolution of the animals, starting with the sponges and ending with the vertebrates. It reviews the evolution of the nervous system, contrasting the distributed neural network seen in cnidarians (i.e. jellyfish) with the central nervous system of vertebrates and arthropods. Finally, it goes into detail on the evolution of the notochord in the earliest known chordates.

  • Derivation of the mammalian skull vault

  • GILLIAN M. MORRISS-KAY
  • Journal:
    The Journal of Anatomy / Volume 199 / Issue 1-2 / August 2001
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    23 August 2001, pp. 143-151
    Print publication:
    August 2001

  • This review describes the evolutionary history of the mammalian skull vault as a basis for understanding its complex structure. Current information on the developmental tissue origins of the skull vault bones (mesoderm and neural crest) is assessed for mammals and other tetrapods. This information is discussed in the context of evolutionary changes in the proportions of the skull vault bones at the sarcopterygian-tetrapod transition. The dual tissue origin of the skull vault is considered in relation to the molecular mechanisms underlying osteogenic cell proliferation and differentiation in the sutural growth centres and in the proportionate contributions of different sutures to skull growth.