Vetulicolians--are they deuterostomes? chordates?
A recent paper by Shu et al.(1) reinterprets the fossil Vetulicola and related forms, all from the Lower Cambrian, as basal deuterostomes, assigning them their own phylum, Vetulicolia. Their conclusion is based on the presence of structures resembling gill slits and a trunk-like region that shows evidence of segmentation. This report summarizes the fossil evidence for their interpretation and evaluates a possible alternative, that vetulicolians may instead be tunicate-like chordates. Implications for our understanding of the nature of the primitive deuterostome (and chordate) body plan are discussed. .
Lacalli
Thurston C
TC
Biology Department, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N-5E2, Canada. lacalli@usask.ca
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002816:Chordata, Nonvertebrate / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification; D005580:Fossils; D005880:Gills / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D007448:Invertebrates / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification; D010802:Phylogeny