Line | Conodonts, the spiky phosphatic remains (bones |
and teeth composed of calcium phosphate) of | |
tiny marine animals that probably appeared about | |
520 million years ago, were once among the most | |
(5) | controversial of fossils. Both the nature of the |
organism to which the remains belonged and the | |
function of the remains were unknown. However, | |
since the 1981 discovery of fossils preserving not | |
just the phosphatic elements but also other remains | |
(10) | of the tiny soft-bodied animals (also called conodonts) |
that bore them, scientists’ reconstructions of the | |
animals’ anatomy have had important implications | |
for hypotheses concerning the development of the | |
vertebrate skeleton. | |
(15) | The vertebrate skeleton had traditionally been |
regarded as a defensive development, champions of | |
this view postulating that it was only with the much | |
later evolution of jaws that vertebrates became | |
predators. The first vertebrates, which were soft- | |
(20) | bodied, would have been easy prey for numerous |
invertebrate carnivores, especially if these early | |
vertebrates were sedentary suspension feeders. | |
Thus, traditionalists argued, these animals developed | |
coverings of bony scales or plates, and teeth were | |
(25) | secondary features, adapted from the protective |
bony scales. Indeed, external skeletons of this | |
type are common among the well-known fossils of | |
ostracoderms, jawless vertebrates that existed from | |
approximately 500 to 400 million years ago. | |
(30) | However, other paleontologists argued that many of |
the definitive characteristics of vertebrates, such as | |
paired eyes and muscular and skeletal adaptations | |
for active life, would not have evolved unless the | |
first vertebrates were predatory. Teeth were more | |
(35) | primitive than external armor according to this view, |
and the earliest vertebrates were predators. | |
The stiffening notochord along the back of the | |
body, V-shaped muscle blocks along the sides, | |
and posterior tail fins help to identify conodonts as | |
(40) | among the most primitive of vertebrates. The lack of |
any mineralized structures apart from the elements | |
in the mouth indicates that conodonts were more | |
primitive than the armored jawless fishes such as the | |
ostracoderms. It now appears that the hard parts that | |
(45) | first evolved in the mouth of an animal improved its |
efficiency as a predator, and that aggression rather | |
than protection was the driving force behind the origin | |
of the vertebrate skeleton. |
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