The stability of thoracic segmentation in trilobites: a case study in developmental and ecological constraints

Evolution & Development
Nigel C HughesJ M Adrain

Abstract

The decline in origination rate of new metazoan body plans following the Cambrian radiation has been suggested to reflect developmental canalization in derived taxa, limiting their ability to evolve forms with radically different morphotypes. Segmentation is a fundamental aspect of arthropod body plan, and here we show that a derived trilobite that secondarily converged on a morphotype characteristic of basal members of the clade also reverted to a pattern of segmental variability common among basal trilobites. Hence a secular trend in loss of variability of the trilobite thorax was not due to the evolution of an inviolable developmental constraint. This result challenges the notion of developmental canalization in phylogenetically derived taxa. Rather, early variability in trilobites may be the result of ecological factors that promoted segment-rich thoracic morphotypes during Cambrian time.

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Citations

Nov 21, 2000·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·M A Wills, R A Fortey
Jul 12, 2002·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·Courtney BabbittAlivia Price
Sep 13, 2000·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·C Kettle, W Arthur
Feb 28, 2014·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·Giuseppe FuscoNigel C Hughes
Mar 22, 2001·Evolution & Development·D H Erwin
Oct 27, 2009·Arthropod Structure & Development·Bruce S Lieberman, Talia S Karim
Dec 13, 2005·Evolution & Development·Andrew G SimpsonRolf Ludvigsen
Dec 13, 2005·Evolution & Development·Giuseppe Fusco
Dec 13, 2005·Evolution & Development·David K JacobsChristopher J Winchell
Dec 13, 2005·Evolution & Development·Wallace Arthur, Ariel D Chipman
Jun 5, 2007·Evolution; International Journal of Organic Evolution·Andrew J Webber, Brenda R Hunda
Mar 26, 2003·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·Nigel C Hughes
Aug 17, 2001·Proceedings. Biological Sciences·B S Lieberman
Oct 16, 2007·BioEssays : News and Reviews in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology·Nigel C Hughes
May 25, 2020·Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society·Duncan J E Murdock
Jun 6, 2017·Integrative and Comparative Biology·Melanie J Hopkins
May 23, 2018·Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology·Mark Webster

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