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Published online 3 November 2004 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news041101-9
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Fish with cleft lip solves evolution riddle
Gap-toothed species shines light on nostril development.
A 395-million-year-old fish may have answered a pressing question of human evolution: how did our nasal cavities adopt their current layout? The strange specimen has nostrils in the middle of its upper teeth.
The fish, called Kenichthys campbelli, represents a halfway point in the evolutionary reshuffling of the nasal passages, say Min Zhu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Per Ahlberg of Uppsala University in Sweden, who describe the fossil in this week's Nature1.
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