The Cambrian Conundrum: Early Divergence and Later Ecological Success in the Early History of Animals
- D. Erwin, M. Laflamme, S. Tweedt, E. Sperling, D. Pisani, K. Peterson
- Geography, Environmental ScienceScience
- 25 November 2011
A compilation of the patterns of fossil and molecular diversification, comparative developmental data, and information on ecological feeding strategies indicate that the major animal clades diverged many tens of millions of years before their first appearance in the fossil record.
Molecular Timetrees Reveal a Cambrian Colonization of Land and a New Scenario for Ecdysozoan Evolution
- Omar Rota-Stabelli, A. Daley, D. Pisani
- Biology, Environmental ScienceCurrent Biology
- 4 March 2013
Phylogenetic-signal dissection of nuclear housekeeping genes supports the paraphyly of sponges and the monophyly of Eumetazoa.
- E. Sperling, K. Peterson, D. Pisani
- BiologyMolecular biology and evolution
- 1 October 2009
The relationships at the base of the metazoan tree have been difficult to robustly resolve, and there are several different hypotheses regarding the interrelationships among sponges, cnidarians,…
Integrated genomic and fossil evidence illuminates life’s early evolution and eukaryote origins
- Holly C Betts, M. N. Puttick, James W. Clark, T. Williams, P. Donoghue, D. Pisani
- BiologyNature Ecology & Evolution
- 24 July 2018
The last universal common ancestor of cellular life is found to have predated the end of late heavy bombardment, and a timescale of life is derived, combining a reappraisal of the fossil material with new molecular clock analyses.
MicroRNAs and phylogenomics resolve the relationships of Tardigrada and suggest that velvet worms are the sister group of Arthropoda
- Lahcen Campbell, Omar Rota-Stabelli, D. Pisani
- BiologyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 6 September 2011
The study confirms the monophyly of the legged ecdysozoans, shows that past support for a Tardigrada + Nematoda group was due to long-branch attraction, and suggests that the velvet worms are the sister group to the arthropods.
The colonization of land by animals: molecular phylogeny and divergence times among arthropods
- D. Pisani, L. Poling, M. Lyons-Weiler, S. Hedges
- BiologyBMC Biology
- 19 January 2004
The consistent support for a close relationship between myriapods and chelicerates, using mitochondrial and nuclear genes and different methods of analysis, suggests that arthropods may have adapted to the terrestrial environment relatively late in their evolutionary history.
Poriferan paraphyly and its implications for Precambrian palaeobiology
- E. Sperling, D. Pisani, K. Peterson
- Geography, Environmental Science
- 2007
It is demonstrated, in accordance with previous molecular studies, that sponges are paraphyletic, and that calcisponge are more closely related to eumetazoans than they are to demosponges.
Genomic data do not support comb jellies as the sister group to all other animals
- D. Pisani, W. Pett, G. Wörheide
- BiologyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 30 November 2015
It is concluded that the alternative scenario of animal evolution according to which ctenophores evolved morphological complexity independently from cnidarians and bilaterians or, alternatively, sponges secondarily lost a nervous system, muscles, and other characters, is not supported by the available evidence.
A congruent solution to arthropod phylogeny: phylogenomics, microRNAs and morphology support monophyletic Mandibulata
- Omar Rota-Stabelli, Lahcen Campbell, M. Telford
- BiologyProceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological…
- 22 January 2011
The phylogenomic analyses strongly support Mandibulata, and show that Myriochelata is a tree-reconstruction artefact caused by saturation and long-branch attraction, and provide strong support for the inclusion of pycnogonids in a monophyletic Chelicerata, a paraphyletic Cycloneuralia, and a common origin of Arthropoda.
Ecdysozoan Mitogenomics: Evidence for a Common Origin of the Legged Invertebrates, the Panarthropoda
- Omar Rota-Stabelli, E. Kayal, D. Lavrov
- BiologyGenome Biology and Evolution
- 30 May 2010
Phylogenetic analyses based on concatenated amino acid coding sequences support a monophyletic origin of the Ecdysozoa and the position of Priapulida as the sister group of a monophysletic Panarthropoda (Tardigrada plus Onychophora plus Arthropoda).
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