Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Palaeontology

Echinoderm roots

Nature volume 430, pages 411–412 (2004)Cite this article

A bold claim about the origins of the echinoderms is based on newly discovered fossils from China. But many pieces are still missing from this part of the fragmented puzzle of life's evolutionary history.

On page 422 of this issue Shu et al.1 describe a new group of small fossils from the Lower Cambrian of Chengjiang, China. The fossils are some 520 million years old: Shu et al. call them vetulocystids, and interpret them as the most primitive echinoderms yet known. If correct, this links the echinoderms to an enigmatic group, the vetulicolians, remains of which are found in the same deposits of early Cambrian age.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1

A. B. SMITH

Figure 2: The main deuterostome groups.

References

  1. Shu, D. -G., Conway Morris, S., Han, J., Zhang, Z. -F. & Liu, J. -N. Nature 430, 422–428 (2004).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Smith, A. B. et al. in Assembling the Tree of Life (eds Cracraft, J. & Donoghue, M. J.) Ch. 22 (Oxford Univ. Press, 2004).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Shu, D. -G. et al. Nature 414, 419–424 (2001).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Mallatt, J. & Chen, J. -Y. J. Morphol. 258, 1–31 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Chen, J. -Y. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 100, 8314–8318 (2003).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Peterson, K. J. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 101, 6536–6541 (2004).

    ADS  CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK

    Andrew B. Smith

Authors
  1. Andrew B. Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Smith, A. Echinoderm roots. Nature 430, 411–412 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/430411a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/430411a

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing