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Nature 454, 169-170 (10 July 2008) | doi:10.1038/454169a; Published online 9 July 2008
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Palaeontology: Squint of the fossil flatfish
Philippe Janvier1
Abstract
Evolutionary biologists have floundered when trying to explain how the asymmetrical head of flatfishes came about. 'Gradually' is the answer arising from exquisite studies of 45-million-year-old fossil specimens.
Minor individual variations apart, external asymmetry is rare in vertebrates. It is limited to hagfishes, which possess an enigmatic pore (possibly a modified gill pore) on their left side; to some cetaceans, whose asymmetrical tusks may be linked to certain feeding behaviours that favour the right side; and to the celebrated example of flatfishes (such as turbot, flounder, halibut, sole).
- Philippe Janvier is at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, UMR 5143, CNRS, 8 Rue Buffon, Paris 75005, France.
Email: janvier@mnhn.fr
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