Strange 130-Year-Old Mystery of Vertebrate Evolution Solved Using Powerful X-Rays
Palaeospondylus as reconstructed by synchrotron radiation x-ray computed tomography. Credit: RIKENEvidence that the mysterious ancient fish-like vertebrate Palaeospondylus was likely one of the earliest ancestors of four-limbed animals, including humans, has been discovered by the Evolutionary Morphology Laboratory led by Shigeru Kuratani at the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR) in Japan, along with collaborators. Published today (May 25, 2022) in the scientific journal Nature, the study unmasks this strange…