A lamprey from the Devonian period of South Africa (original) (raw)

Nature volume 443, pages 981–984 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Lampreys are the most scientifically accessible of the remaining jawless vertebrates, but their evolutionary history is obscure. In contrast to the rich fossil record of armoured jawless fishes, all of which date from the Devonian period and earlier1,2,3, only two Palaeozoic lampreys have been recorded, both from the Carboniferous period1. In addition to these, the recent report of an exquisitely preserved Lower Cretaceous example4 demonstrates that anatomically modern lampreys were present by the late Mesozoic era. Here we report a marine/estuarine fossil lamprey from the Famennian (Late Devonian) of South Africa5,6, the identity of which is established easily because many of the key specializations of modern forms are already in place. These specializations include the first evidence of a large oral disc, the first direct evidence of circumoral teeth and a well preserved branchial basket. This small agnathan, Priscomyzon riniensis gen. et sp. nov., is not only more conventionally lamprey-like than other Palaeozoic examples7,8, but is also some 35 million years older. This finding is evidence that agnathans close to modern lampreys had evolved before the end of the Devonian period. In this light, lampreys as a whole appear all the more remarkable: ancient specialists that have persisted as such and survived a subsequent 360 million years.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to B. de Klerk for his continuing support, and thank M. A. Purnel, R. J. Aldridge and M. M. Chang for advice and discussions. Work by R.W.G. and B.S.R. is supported by the Palaeontological Scientific Trust (PAST), National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) of South Africa, and that of M.I.C. by the Faculty Research Fund of the University of Chicago. Author Contributions The discovery, identification, diagnosis and morphological description of the specimen are primarily the work of R.W.G. Phylogenetic analysis was performed by M.I.C., as well as final drafting of the paper. The research was supervised by B.S.R. All authors read, commented on and contributed to all parts of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bernard Price Institute (Palaeontology), School for Geosciences, University of Witwatersrand, 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa
    Robert W. Gess & Bruce S. Rubidge
  2. Department of Organismal Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA
    Michael I. Coates

Authors

  1. Robert W. Gess
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  2. Michael I. Coates
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  3. Bruce S. Rubidge
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Correspondence toRobert W. Gess.

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Supplementary Notes

This file contains Supplementary Information on photographic methods used as well as information relevant to the phylogenetic analysis. This latter includes notes on taxa selected, characters, character re-weighting, enforced constraints and a reduced taxon subset, in addition to two supplementary trees, a character list and a data set. (DOC 86 kb)

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Gess, R., Coates, M. & Rubidge, B. A lamprey from the Devonian period of South Africa.Nature 443, 981–984 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature05150

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Editorial Summary

Out of the shadows

Lampreys and hagfish are the only remaining jawless vertebrates and are commonly used as surrogate ancestors for comparative research on living jawed vertebrates. Until recently little was known of the evolutionary history of lampreys as the only known fossils were enigmatic examples from the Carboniferous period, around 300 million years ago. Then earlier this year Nature published a report of a fine specimen from the Cretaceous of China that looked very close to modern forms. This is now joined by a well preserved fossil from the Devonian of South Africa, which at about 360 million years old is the oldest known lamprey. It looks slightly different from modern lampreys, but is the same in essentials and differs from the various now-extinct armoured fishes with which it shared the Devonian world.

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