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Evolutionary biology

The amphioxus unleashed

Nature volume 453, pages 999–1000 (2008)Cite this article

The genome sequence of a species of amphioxus, an iconic organism in the history of evolutionary biology, opens up a fresh vista on the comparative investigation of chordates and vertebrates.

The amphioxus was originally described by P. S. Pallas in 1774 as a kind of slug. It took almost another hundred years before Alexander Kowalevsky recognized the chordate affinities of this organism2 as well as of tunicates (sea squirts)3— the other group of invertebrate chordates — and the golden age of the study of vertebrate evolution began.

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Figure 1: The amphioxus — back in public life.

D. L. GEIGER/SNAP/ALAMY

Figure 2: Chordates and vertebrates.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Henry Gee is a Senior Editor of Nature. h.gee@nature.com,

    Henry Gee

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  1. Henry Gee
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Gee, H. The amphioxus unleashed. Nature 453, 999–1000 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/453999a

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