Nature Communications (Mar 2019)

A stem group echinoderm from the basal Cambrian of China and the origins of Ambulacraria

  • Timothy P. Topper,
  • Junfeng Guo,
  • Sébastien Clausen,
  • Christian B. Skovsted,
  • Zhifei Zhang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09059-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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The early evolution of the deuterostomes is not well resolved. Here, Topper and colleagues investigate the early Cambrian metazoan Yanjiahella biscarpa, concluding that it is a stem echinoderm, is among the oldest known deuterstomes, and supports an ancestral enteropneust body plan in hemichordates.