Biomineralized skeletons are widespread in animals, and their origins can be traced to the
latest Ediacaran or early Cambrian fossil record, in virtually all animal groups. The origin of …

The evolutionary history of biomineralization in animals is crucial to our understanding of
modern mineralized tissues. Traditional methods of unravelling this history have aimed to …

Clearly, the fossil record from the Cambrian period is an invaluable tool for deciphering
animal evolution. Less clear, however, is how to integrate the paleontological information …

Assembly of the necessary biochemical machinery for biomineralisation long-predated the
appearance and rapid diversification of metazoan skeletons in the late Ediacaran to Middle …

The origin and radiation of biomineralizing metazoans represents an important evolutionary
innovation in the history of life. The earliest known skeletal metazoans are dominated by four …

The stratigraphically earliest and the most primitive examples of vertebrate skeletal
mineralization belong to lineages that are entirely extinct. Therefore, palaeontology offers a …

The origin and differentiation of major clades is often assumed to have occurred in tandem
with the 'explosion'of fossil evidence of diverse morphologies ('disparity') at the base of the …

The rapid appearance of bilaterian clades at the beginning of the Phanerozoic is one of the
most intriguing topics in macroevolution. However, the complex feedbacks between …

A longstanding question in paleontology has been the influence of calcite and aragonite
seas on the evolution of carbonate skeletons. An earlier study based on 21 taxa that evolved …

Most metazoans require skeletal support systems. While the formation of bones and teeth in
vertebrates has been well studied, endo‐and exoskeleton development of non‐vertebrates …