From: bivalve (bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com)
Date: Thu Oct 23 2003 - 17:23:28 EDT
>You may already have seen it in a more scholarly setting, but this brief item in today's Akron Beacon Journal seems relevant.
>AUSTRALIA _Farmer finds fossil of ancient vertebrate_
> A tadpole-shaped fossil, believed to be the oldest vertebrate ever found...The fossil is believed to be 560 million years old <
This was mentioned on the Paleonet email list. I don't think it has made it into a more scholarly setting, and discussion so far on the list suggests that it probably will not make it when it reaches a more scholarly setting. Suspicions were expressed that it is merely a folded Charnia (a sea-pen like form common in those rocks).
On the original question, invertebrate-vertebrate transition is also supported by the study of modern invertebrate chordates like lancelets and sea squirts. These are invertebrates with many of the basic body plan features of vertebrates. Likewise, jawless fishes represent a transitional grade between standard vertebrates and invertebrates. Conodonts are an extinct group intermediate between standard vertebrates and invertebrates; exactly how they relate is still debated, as very few body fossils are known.
Dr. David Campbell
Old Seashells
University of Alabama
Biodiversity & Systematics
Dept. Biological Sciences
Box 870345
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0345 USA
bivalve@mail.davidson.alumlink.com
That is Uncle Joe, taken in the masonic regalia of a Grand Exalted Periwinkle of the Mystic Order of Whelks-P.G. Wodehouse, Romance at Droitgate Spa
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