ArticleNature communications2023
A mid-Cambrian tunicate and the deep origin of the ascidiacean body plan.
Article in Nature communications, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Lifelong Invertebrate Chordate Central Nervous System Regeneration is Driven by a Migrating Pool of Conserved Neural Stem Cells program.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Embodied postural dynamics underlie behavioral diversity in a benthic sessile chordate.iScience · 2026Article
- Thaliacean tunicates, vertebrate sisters regained lifelong mobility.PLoS biology · 2026Article
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- Hydrophobic interactions determine the optimum temperature of a housekeeping enzyme.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2026Article
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- Cellulose-Based Hybrid Hydrogels for Tissue Engineering Applications: A Sustainable Approach.Gels (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Electrical Stimulation Rejuvenates Tunicates: Altered Stem Cell and Immune Activity.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Less, but More: New Insights From Appendicularians on Chordate Fgf Evolution and the Divergence of Tunicate Lifestyles.Molecular biology and evolution · 2025Article
- A new sponge from the Marjum Formation of Utah documents the Cambrian origin of the hexactinellid body plan.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- The Palaeobiology of Two Crown Group Cnidarians:Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- A long-headed Cambrian soft-bodied vertebrate from the American Great Basin region.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Extraction, Isolation, Characterization, and Biological Activity of Sulfated Polysaccharides Present in Ascidian VisceraPharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
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4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Tunicates are an evolutionarily significant subphylum of marine chordates, with their phylogenetic position as the sister-group to Vertebrata making them key to unraveling our own deep time origin. Tunicates greatly vary with regards to morphology, ecology, and life cycle, but little is known about the early evolution of the group, e.g. whether their last common ancestor lived freely in the water column or attached to the seafloor. Additionally, tunicates have a poor fossil record, which includes only one taxon with preserved soft-tissues. Here we describe Megasiphon thylakos nov., a 500-million-year-old tunicate from the Marjum Formation of Utah, which features a barrel-shaped body with two long siphons and prominent longitudinal muscles. The ascidiacean-like body of this new species suggests two alternative hypotheses for early tunicate evolution. The most likely scenario posits M. thylakos belongs to stem-group Tunicata, suggesting that a biphasic life cycle, with a planktonic larva and a sessile epibenthic adult, is ancestral for this entire subphylum. Alternatively, a position within the crown-group indicates that the divergence between appendicularians and all other tunicates occurred 50 million years earlier than currently estimated based on molecular clocks. Ultimately, M. thylakos demonstrates that fundamental components of the modern tunicate body plan were already established shortly after the Cambrian Explosion.
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