title: Evolution: Divining the Nature of the Ancestral Vertebrate.
abstract: Inferences of the ancestral vertebrate are increasingly complex because the previously understudied cyclostomes have been revealed as simplified and specialised. New research uncovers another ancestral vertebrate character, resolving a century of debate over whether the ancestral vertebrate bore gills.
authors.affiliation: School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Life Sciences Building, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK. Electronic address: phil.donoghue@bristol.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Donoghue
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005880:Gills; D006196:Hagfishes; D007798:Lampreys; D014714:Vertebrates