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Johan Lindgren

Johan Lindgren

Senior lecturer

Johan Lindgren

Miniaturization during a Silurian environmental crisis generated the modern brittle star body plan

Author

  • Ben Thuy
  • Mats E. Eriksson
  • Manfred Kutscher
  • Johan Lindgren
  • Lea D. Numberger-Thuy
  • David F. Wright

Summary, in English

Pivotal anatomical innovations often seem to appear by chance when viewed through the lens of the fossil record. As a consequence, specific driving forces behind the origination of major organismal clades generally remain speculative. Here, we present a rare exception to this axiom by constraining the appearance of a diverse animal group (the living Ophiuroidea) to a single speciation event rather than hypothetical ancestors. Fossils belonging to a new pair of temporally consecutive species of brittle stars (Ophiopetagno paicei gen. et sp. nov. and Muldaster haakei gen. et sp. nov.) from the Silurian (444–419 Mya) of Sweden reveal a process of miniaturization that temporally coincides with a global extinction and environmental perturbation known as the Mulde Event. The reduction in size from O. paicei to M. haakei forced a structural simplification of the ophiuroid skeleton through ontogenetic retention of juvenile traits, thereby generating the modern brittle star bauplan.

Department/s

  • Lithosphere and Biosphere Science

Publishing year

2022

Language

English

Publication/Series

Communications Biology

Volume

5

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Topic

  • Geology

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2399-3642