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Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Assessing Species-specific Contributions To Craniofacial Development Using Quail-duck Chimeras
Published on: May 31, 2014
A new evolutionary scenario for the vertebrate jaw
Y Shigetani1, F Sugahara, S Kuratani
1Division of Developmental Neurobiology, National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, UK.
Abstract:
The jaw is one of the earliest innovations in vertebrate history. Several recent findings suggest a scenario for jaw evolution as a progression of changes in pharyngeal developmental mechanisms. The lamprey, an extant jawless vertebrate, constitutes a model for the pre-gnathostome ancestry. Comparing expression patterns of regulatory genes between the gnathostome and lamprey embryos may enable us to get a glimpse of the essential changes that were responsible for the evolution of the jaw. We hypothesize that a specific topographical change of inductive tissue interactions to be described here brought about the jaw as an evolutionary novelty.
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