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Genotyping of Sea Anemone during Early Development
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Published on: May 13, 2019

Segmentation, metamerism and the Cambrian explosion.

Juan Pablo Couso1

  • 1School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. j.p.couso@sussex.ac.uk

The International Journal of Developmental Biology
|February 28, 2009
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Recent data suggest that a segmented body plan (metamerism) may be an ancestral trait in bilaterian animals, potentially driving the Cambrian explosion of body diversity.

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary developmental biology
  • Comparative genomics
  • Paleontology

Background:

  • Molecular and genetic data challenge traditional views of animal evolution.
  • Similarities in developmental mechanisms raise questions about homology versus analogy.
  • The evolution of segmentation (metamerism) is a key area of debate.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To re-evaluate the evolutionary origin of segmentation in animals.
  • To investigate whether metamerism arose once or multiple times.
  • To assess the role of metamerism in the Cambrian explosion.

Main Methods:

  • Review of paleontological data.
  • Analysis of developmental biology information.
  • Examination of genomic sequences and segmentation mechanisms.

Main Results:

  • A metameric body plan is likely an ancestral character of bilaterian animals.
  • Segmentation may have preceded the Cambrian explosion.
  • Genomic and segmentation similarities exist across bilaterian phyla.

Conclusions:

  • The traditional view of convergent evolution for segmentation is challenged.
  • Metamerism is proposed as a potential trigger for the Cambrian explosion.
  • A single origin of metamerism in bilaterians is supported by current evidence.