Animal Evolution: The Hard Problem of Cartilage Origins

Thibaut Brunet; Detlev Arendt

doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.062

Animal Evolution: The Hard Problem of Cartilage Origins

Curr Biol. 2016 Jul 25;26(14):R685-8. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.062.

Authors

Thibaut Brunet¹, Detlev Arendt²

Affiliations

¹ Developmental Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Meyerhofstraße 1, 69017 Heidelberg, Germany. Electronic address: [email protected].
² Developmental Biology Unit, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Meyerhofstraße 1, 69017 Heidelberg, Germany. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 27458918
DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.05.062

Abstract

Our skeletons evolved from cartilaginous tissue, but it remains a mystery how cartilage itself first arose in evolution. Characterization of cartilage in cuttlefish and horseshoe crabs reveals surprising commonalities with chordate chondrocytes, suggesting a common evolutionary origin.

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MeSH terms

Animals
Cartilage*
Chondrocytes*
Chordata