ArticleNature2017
Hyoliths are Palaeozoic lophophorates.
Article in Nature, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 98 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Uniqueness and predictability in evolution and the history of mollusks.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Exceptionally Preserved Setae: A Possible Morphological Synapomorphy of Cambrian Lophotrochozoans.Evolution & development · 2025Article
- The first healed injury in a hyolith operculum.Die Naturwissenschaften · 2023Article
- Fibrous or Prismatic? A Comparison of the Lamello-Fibrillar Nacre in Early Cambrian and Modern Lophotrochozoans.Biology · 2023Article
- Studies on geochemical characteristics and biomineralization of Cambrian phosphorites, Zhijin, Guizhou Province, China.PloS one · 2023Article
- Hyolithid-like hyoliths without helens from the early Cambrian of South China, and their implications for the evolution of hyoliths.BMC ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- New insight into the soft anatomy and shell microstructures of early Cambrian orthothecids (Hyolitha).Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- First data on the organization of the nervous system in juveniles of Novocrania anomala (Brachiopoda, Craniiformea).Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Are hyoliths Palaeozoic lophophorates?National science review · 2020Article
- Finding a home for hyoliths.National science review · 2020Article
- Article
- Palaeoecology of Voulteryon parvulus (Eucrustacea, Polychelida) from the Middle Jurassic of La Voulte-sur-Rhône Fossil-Lagerstätte (France).Scientific reports · 2019Article
- The two phases of the Cambrian Explosion.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Hyoliths with pedicles illuminate the origin of the brachiopod body plan.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Orthrozanclus elongata n. sp. and the significance of sclerite-covered taxa for early trochozoan evolution.Scientific reports · 2017Article
- Three Cambrian fossils assembled into an extinct body plan of cnidarian affinity.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2017Article
- Gene Expression Patterns in Brachiopod Larvae Refute the "Brachiopod-Fold" Hypothesis.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Hyoliths are abundant and globally distributed 'shelly' fossils that appear early in the Cambrian period and can be found throughout the 280 million year span of Palaeozoic strata. The ecological and evolutionary importance of this group has remained unresolved, largely because of their poorly constrained soft anatomy and idiosyncratic scleritome, which comprises an operculum, a conical shell and, in some taxa, a pair of lateral spines (helens). Since their first description over 175 years ago, hyoliths have most often been regarded as incertae sedis, related to molluscs or assigned to their own phylum. Here we examine over 1,500 specimens of the mid-Cambrian hyolith Haplophrentis from the Burgess Shale and Spence Shale Lagerstätten. We reconstruct Haplophrentis as a semi-sessile, epibenthic suspension feeder that could use its helens to elevate its tubular body above the sea floor. Exceptionally preserved soft tissues include an extendable, gullwing-shaped, tentacle-bearing organ surrounding a central mouth, which we interpret as a lophophore, and a U-shaped digestive tract ending in a dorsolateral anus. Together with opposing bilateral sclerites and a deep ventral visceral cavity, these features indicate an affinity with the lophophorates (brachiopods, phoronids and tommotiids), substantially increasing the morphological disparity of this prominent group.
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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.