Mysterious aquatic animal: the oldest vertebrate

The oldest ancestor of the vertebrates is a recently discovered mysterious creature. It, now extinct, lived in the Earth’s oceans more than half a billion years ago. At the head of this discovery is the Qingyi Tian paleontologist of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Nanjing. A discovery that reveals the missing link in the evolution between invertebrates and vertebrates.

The mysterious aquatic creature named yunnanozoo takes its name from the place where it was found
most marine fossils. This is exactly the Chinese province of Yunnan. to be found
lived about 518 million years ago, in the Cambrian. Today it represents one of the most talked about secrets on
development of the jaw and skull of vertebrates. By analyzing 127 new yunnanozoa fossils, scientists proved that:

Yunnanozoic gill arches consist of cellular cartilage with an extracellular matrix dominated by microfibrils, a feature until now considered to be specific to vertebrates.

Some details emerged about the anatomy of these creatures, found that thepharyngeal arch has developed
of a non-articulated cartilage rod. All, however, without knowing when and how it came out.

Two types of pharyngeal skeletons, the basket types and the isolated ones, are found in the Cambrian and living vertebrates. This implies that the shape of the pharyngeal skeletons has a more complex early evolutionary history than previously thought.

Qingyi Tian

This discovery and new observations of the anatomy have enabled its evolutionary positioning
creatures. They are found at the base of the vertebrate family tree and provide new information about the arches
pharynx. The latter appear in the fourth week of embryo development. then yes
so they form other elements of the body.