A mid-Cambrian tunicate and the deep origin of the ascidiacean body plan
Abstract Tunicates are an evolutionarily significant subphylum of marine chordates, with their phylogenetic position as the sister-group to Vertebrata making them key to unraveling our own deep time origin. Tunicates greatly vary with regards to morphology, ecology, and life cycle, but little is kno...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39012-4 |
| _version_ | 1797784545341210624 |
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| author | Karma Nanglu Rudy Lerosey-Aubril James C. Weaver Javier Ortega-Hernández |
| author_facet | Karma Nanglu Rudy Lerosey-Aubril James C. Weaver Javier Ortega-Hernández |
| author_sort | Karma Nanglu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Tunicates are an evolutionarily significant subphylum of marine chordates, with their phylogenetic position as the sister-group to Vertebrata making them key to unraveling our own deep time origin. Tunicates greatly vary with regards to morphology, ecology, and life cycle, but little is known about the early evolution of the group, e.g. whether their last common ancestor lived freely in the water column or attached to the seafloor. Additionally, tunicates have a poor fossil record, which includes only one taxon with preserved soft-tissues. Here we describe Megasiphon thylakos nov., a 500-million-year-old tunicate from the Marjum Formation of Utah, which features a barrel-shaped body with two long siphons and prominent longitudinal muscles. The ascidiacean-like body of this new species suggests two alternative hypotheses for early tunicate evolution. The most likely scenario posits M. thylakos belongs to stem-group Tunicata, suggesting that a biphasic life cycle, with a planktonic larva and a sessile epibenthic adult, is ancestral for this entire subphylum. Alternatively, a position within the crown-group indicates that the divergence between appendicularians and all other tunicates occurred 50 million years earlier than currently estimated based on molecular clocks. Ultimately, M. thylakos demonstrates that fundamental components of the modern tunicate body plan were already established shortly after the Cambrian Explosion. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T00:41:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-32e1ec37353c42489f43c3715d2974f5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T00:41:25Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj.art-32e1ec37353c42489f43c3715d2974f52023-07-09T11:17:51ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232023-07-011411910.1038/s41467-023-39012-4A mid-Cambrian tunicate and the deep origin of the ascidiacean body planKarma Nanglu0Rudy Lerosey-Aubril1James C. Weaver2Javier Ortega-Hernández3Museum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard UniversityMuseum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard UniversityWyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard UniversityMuseum of Comparative Zoology and Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard UniversityAbstract Tunicates are an evolutionarily significant subphylum of marine chordates, with their phylogenetic position as the sister-group to Vertebrata making them key to unraveling our own deep time origin. Tunicates greatly vary with regards to morphology, ecology, and life cycle, but little is known about the early evolution of the group, e.g. whether their last common ancestor lived freely in the water column or attached to the seafloor. Additionally, tunicates have a poor fossil record, which includes only one taxon with preserved soft-tissues. Here we describe Megasiphon thylakos nov., a 500-million-year-old tunicate from the Marjum Formation of Utah, which features a barrel-shaped body with two long siphons and prominent longitudinal muscles. The ascidiacean-like body of this new species suggests two alternative hypotheses for early tunicate evolution. The most likely scenario posits M. thylakos belongs to stem-group Tunicata, suggesting that a biphasic life cycle, with a planktonic larva and a sessile epibenthic adult, is ancestral for this entire subphylum. Alternatively, a position within the crown-group indicates that the divergence between appendicularians and all other tunicates occurred 50 million years earlier than currently estimated based on molecular clocks. Ultimately, M. thylakos demonstrates that fundamental components of the modern tunicate body plan were already established shortly after the Cambrian Explosion.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39012-4 |
| spellingShingle | Karma Nanglu Rudy Lerosey-Aubril James C. Weaver Javier Ortega-Hernández A mid-Cambrian tunicate and the deep origin of the ascidiacean body plan Nature Communications |
| title | A mid-Cambrian tunicate and the deep origin of the ascidiacean body plan |
| title_full | A mid-Cambrian tunicate and the deep origin of the ascidiacean body plan |
| title_fullStr | A mid-Cambrian tunicate and the deep origin of the ascidiacean body plan |
| title_full_unstemmed | A mid-Cambrian tunicate and the deep origin of the ascidiacean body plan |
| title_short | A mid-Cambrian tunicate and the deep origin of the ascidiacean body plan |
| title_sort | mid cambrian tunicate and the deep origin of the ascidiacean body plan |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39012-4 |
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