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

Birth of the jawed vertebrates

Nature volume 457, pages 1094–1095 (2009)Cite this article

The discovery of embryos in certain fossil fishes not only shows that internal fertilization and live birth evolved early in vertebrate history, but also raises questions about the origin of jawed vertebrates.

Every once in a while, a discovery comes along that puts our biological understanding of some extinct group of organisms on a much firmer footing. On page 1124 of this issue, Long and colleagues1 present such a discovery, one that may prove to have far-reaching implications for our understanding of early vertebrate evolution. For the second time in less than a year2, they have found preserved embryos in the body cavity of a placoderm fish.

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

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Gnathostomes and their modes of reproduction.

References

  1. Long, J. A., Trinajstic, K. & Johanson, Z. Nature 457, 1124–1127 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Long, J. A., Trinajstic, K., Young, G. C. & Senden, T. Nature 453, 650–653 (2008).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Dennis, K. & Miles, R. S. Zool. J. Linn. Soc. 73, 213–258 (1981).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Moy-Thomas, J. A. & Miles, R. S. Palaeozoic Fishes (Chapman & Hall, 1971).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  5. Long, J. A. Swimming in Stone: The Amazing Gogo Fossils of the Kimberley (Fremantle, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  6. Janvier, P. Early Vertebrates (Oxford Sci. Publ., 1996).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Brazeau, M. D. Nature 457, 305–308 (2009).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Per E. Ahlberg is in the Subdepartment of Evolutionary Organismal Biology, Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology, Uppsala University, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden. per.ahlberg@ebc.uu.se,

    Per E. Ahlberg

Authors
  1. Per E. Ahlberg
    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

Ahlberg, P. Birth of the jawed vertebrates. Nature 457, 1094–1095 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/4571094a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/4571094a

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