Kate Trinajstic

Sep 12, 2024 | nature.com | Alice Clement |Richard Cloutier |Hugo Dutel |Kate Trinajstic

AbstractThe living coelacanth Latimeria (Sarcopterygii: Actinistia) is an iconic, so-called ‘living fossil’ within one of the most apparently morphologically conservative vertebrate groups. We describe a new, 3-D preserved coelacanth from the Late Devonian Gogo Formation in Western Australia. We assemble a comprehensive analysis of the group to assess the phylogeny, evolutionary rates, and morphological disparity of all coelacanths.

May 11, 2023 | science.org | Cassandra Burdziak |Viridiana Villa-Islas |Xiaoshi Qian |Kate Trinajstic

Arthrodires conform to the same patterns of anatomy as living gnathostomes, particularly in their general bauplan and tissue development (2, 3). However, like all fossil soft tissues, the organs of these placoderms (2) are modified by taphonomy (4–7). They are emphatically not “fossil dissections” that can straightforwardly be compared with fresh animal specimens (5).