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

Squint of the fossil flatfish

Nature volume 454, pages 169–170 (2008)Cite this article

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). On page 209 of this issue1, Friedman adds a contemporary chapter to the long history of thinking about flatfish evolution.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Eye eye.

K. TELNES/IMAGEQUESTMARINE.COM

Figure 2: The benefit of squinting?

References

  1. Friedman, M. Nature 454, 209–212 (2008).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Faujas de Saint-Fond, B. Essai de Géologie (Dufour, 1809).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Chanet, B. & Chapleau, F. Bull. Soc. Sci. Nat. Ouest Fr. 27, 101–108 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Autenrieth, J. H. F. in Arkiv für Zoologie und Zootomie Vol. 1 (ed. Wiedermann, C. R. W.) 47 (1800).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Lamarck, J. B. Philosophie Zoologique (Dentu, 1809).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Malm, A. W. K. Svenska Vetensk-Akad Handl. 7(4), 1–28 (1868).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Darwin, C. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection 6th edn (Murray, 1872).

    Google Scholar 

  8. Patterson, C. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 12, 195–223 (1981).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philippe Janvier is at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, UMR 5143, CNRS, 8 Rue Buffon, Paris 75005, France. janvier@mnhn.fr,

    Philippe Janvier

Authors
  1. Philippe Janvier
    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

Janvier, P. Squint of the fossil flatfish. Nature 454, 169–170 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/454169a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/454169a

This article is cited by

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