An evo-devo view on the origin of the backbone: evolutionary development of the vertebrae

Vertebral columns are a group of diverse axial structures that define the vertebrates and provide supportive, locomotive, protective, and other important functions. The embryonic origin of the first vertebral element in this subphylum, the lamprey arcualia, has remained a puzzle for more than a century although much developmental and genetic progress has been made. The comparative approach is a very powerful tool for studying vertebrate morphological variation and understanding how the novel structures were generated during evolution. Here, I first briefly describe the vertebral structures and their developmental processes in major taxa, and then analyze the most recently published data on the basal vertebrates. Finally, an ontogenetic and phylogenetic origin is proposed. The lamprey may have already evolved a sclerotome, which gave rise to arcualia ontogenetically; whole genome duplications likely promoted the establishment of sclerotomal core genetic program by gene co-options.