The Devonian tetrapod Acanthostega gunnari Jarvik: postcranial anatomy, basal tetrapod interrelationships and patterns of skeletal evolution
- M. Coates
- BiologyTransactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh…
- 1996
Comparison between axial skeletons of primitive tetrapods suggests that plesiomorphic fish-like morphologies were re-patterned in a cranio-caudal direction with the emergence of tetrapod vertebral regionalisation.
Early tetrapod relationships revisited
A deep split of early tetrapods between lissamphibian‐ and amniote‐related taxa is detected and is indicated by the results of the original parsimony run ‐ as well as those retrieved from several other treatments of the data set.
A new time-scale for ray-finned fish evolution
- I. Hurley, R. Mueller, M. Coates
- Biology, Environmental ScienceProceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological…
- 22 February 2007
New palaeontological evidence is presented that the neopterygian crown radiation is a Palaeozoic event, and it is demonstrated that conflicts between molecular and morphological data for the age of the Neopterygii result, in part, from missing fossil data.
Dates, nodes and character conflict: Addressing the Lissamphibian origin problem
Tests of different crown topologies show that placement of amphibians within lepospondyls is not a significantly worse fit for the whole character set than a close temnospondyl‐lissamphibian relationship, and the latter phylogenetic hypothesis best captures the most coherent assembly of derived lissampshibian apomorphies.
A lamprey from the Devonian period of South Africa
- R. Gess, M. Coates, B. Rubidge
- Geography, Environmental ScienceNature
- 26 October 2006
A marine/estuarine fossil lamprey from the Famennian (Late Devonian) of South Africa is reported, the identity of which is established easily because many of the key specializations of modern forms are already in place, evidence that agnathans close to modern lampreys had evolved before the end of the Devonian period.
End-Devonian extinction and a bottleneck in the early evolution of modern jawed vertebrates
- L. Sallan, M. Coates
- Environmental Science, GeographyProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 17 May 2010
It is shown that major vertebrate clades suffered acute and systematic effects centered on the Hangenberg extinction involving long-term losses of over 50% of diversity and the restructuring of vertebrate ecosystems worldwide.
Endocranial preservation of a Carboniferous actinopterygian from Lancashire, UK, and the interrelationships of primitive actinopterygians
- M. Coates
- Environmental Science, Biology
- 28 February 1999
Results indicate that ancestral chondrostean (sturgeon and paddlefish) and neopterygian lineages diverged earlier than current theories suggest and highlight likely specializations in extant non-teleostean actinopterygians.
A new technique for identifying sequence heterochrony.
- J. Jeffery, O. R. Bininda‐Emonds, M. Coates, M. Richardson
- BiologySystematic Biology
- 1 April 2005
This work describes a new, parsimony-based method, which it is called Parsimov, that greatly increases the utility of the event-pair method for inferring instances of sequence heterochrony.
Acanthodes and shark-like conditions in the last common ancestor of modern gnathostomes
- Samuel P. Davis, J. Finarelli, M. Coates
- BiologyNature
- 14 June 2012
A new description of the Acanthodes braincase is presented, yielding new details of external and internal morphology, notably the regions surrounding and within the ear capsule and neurocranial roof that contribute to a new reconstruction that, unexpectedly, resembles early chondrichthyan crania.
The origin of vertebrate limbs.
- M. Coates
- BiologyDevelopment
- 1994
A composite framework of several phylogenetic hypotheses is presented incorporating living and fossil taxa, including the first report of an acanthodian metapterygium and a new reconstruction of the axial skeleton and caudal fin of Acanthostega gunnari, indicating further directions for comparative experimental research.
...
...