The emergence of the jaw, in the late Cambrian, was one of the big breakthroughs for life on earth

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

Interesting:

Fossilized fish specimens from the Canadian Rockies, known as Metaspriggina,
dates from the Cambrian period (around 505 million years ago), shows pairs of exceptionally well-preserved arches near the front of its body. The first of these pairs, closest to the head, eventually led to the evolution of jaws in vertebrates, the first time this feature has been seen so early in the fossil record.

Fish fossils from the Cambrian period are very rare and usually poorly preserved. This new discovery shows in unprecedented detail how some of the earliest vertebrates developed – the starting point of a story which led to animals such as later fish species, but also dinosaurs and mammals such as horses and even ourselves. The findings are published in the 11 June edition of the journal Nature.

Fossils of Metaspriggina were recovered from several locations including the Burgess Shale site in Canada’s Rocky Mountains, one of the richest Cambrian fossil deposits in the world. These fossils shed new light on the Cambrian ‘explosion’, a period of rapid evolution starting around 540 million years ago, when most major animal phyla originated.

Previously, only two incomplete specimens of Metaspriggina had been identified. During expeditions conducted by the Royal Ontario Museum in 2012, 44 new Burgess Shale fossils were collected near Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park in British Columbia, which provide the basis for this study.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Royal Ontario Museum/University of Toronto used these fossils, along with several more specimens from the eastern United States, to reclassify Metaspriggina as one of the first vertebrates.

The fossils, which date from 505 million years ago, also show clearly for the first time how a series of rod-like structures, known as the gill or branchial arches, were arranged in the earliest vertebrates. These arches have long been known to have played a key role in the evolution of vertebrates, including the origin of jaws, and some of the tiny bones in the ear which transmit sound in mammals. Until now, however, a lack of quality fossils has meant that the arrangement of these arches in the first vertebrates had been hypothetical.

Post external references

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    http://www.science20.com/news_articles/fossilized_500_million_year_old_fish_shows_the_origin_of_jaws_in_vertebrates-138373
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