ReviewEvoDevo2015
The phylogenetic position of ctenophores and the origin(s) of nervous systems.
Review in EvoDevo, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 59 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
59 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 189 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Organization of the ctenophore tentacular apparatus: AdultiScience · 2026Article
- The evolutionary origins of synaptic proteins and their changing roles in different organisms across evolution.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Non-visual photoreceptive brain specification in sea urchin larvae.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Beyond synapses: cytoplasmic connections in brain function and evolution.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2025Review
- The Palaeobiology of Two Crown Group Cnidarians:Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- Ocean to Tree: Leveraging Single-Molecule RNA-Seq to Repair Genome Gene Models and Improve Phylogenomic Analysis of Gene and Species Evolution.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2024Article
- Article
- The nature of science: The fundamental role of natural history in ecology, evolution, conservation, and education.Ecology and evolution · 2023Review
- Article
- Article
- Improving Orthologous Signal and Model Fit in Datasets Addressing the Root of the Animal Phylogeny.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Neuromuscular development in the emerging scyphozoan model system,Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Article
- The premetazoan ancestry of the synaptic toolkit and appearance of first neurons.Essays in biochemistry · 2022Article
- Cambrian comb jellies from Utah illuminate the early evolution of nervous and sensory systems in ctenophores.iScience · 2021Article
- Whole-Body Regeneration in the Lobate CtenophoreGenes · 2021Review
- Neural versus alternative integrative systems: molecular insights into origins of neurotransmitters.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- Developmental processes in Ediacara macrofossils.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Neuropeptide signalling systems - An underexplored target for venom drug discovery.Biochemical pharmacology · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Ctenophores have traditionally been treated as eumetazoans, but some recent whole genome studies have revived the idea that they are, rather, the sister group to all other metazoans. This deep branching position implies either that nervous systems have evolved twice, in Ctenophora and in Eumetazoa, or that an ancestral metazoan nervous system has been lost in sponges and placozoans. We caution, however, that phylogenetic-tree construction artifacts may have placed ctenophores too deep in the metazoan tree. We discuss nervous system origins under these alternative phylogenies and in light of comparative data of ctenophore and eumetazoan nervous systems. We argue that characters like neuropeptide signaling, ciliary photoreceptors, gap junctions and presynaptic molecules are consistent with a shared ancestry of nervous systems. However, if ctenophores are the sister group to all other metazoans, this ancestral nervous system was likely very simple. Further studies are needed to resolve the deep phylogeny of metazoans and to have a better understanding of the early steps of nervous system evolution.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.