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Comment on "Ultrastructure reveals ancestral vertebrate pharyngeal skeleton in yunnanozoans"
Xi-Guang Zhang1, Brian R Pratt2
1Institute of Paleontology, Yunnan University (Chenggong Campus), Kunming 650500, China.
Abstract:
Tian et al. (Reports, 8 July 2022, p. 218) claim that Cambrian yunnanozoan animals are stem vertebrates, based partly on their observation at the nanometer scale of microfibrillar tissue located in the branchial arches. They interpret this to represent cellular cartilage with an extracellular matrix of microfibrils. Instead, we argue that the 'microfibrils' are more likely modern organic contamination.
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