What was the last common ancestor of all vertebrates?

Believe it or not, the last common ancestor of all vertebrates was a descendant of a tunicate. Tunicates are dismally boring compared to vertebrates- they just latch onto the ground wherever their larval stage swims to and morphs into an unmoving, stationary filter feeder. Below is the larval and adult stage of the tuberculate. read more

So the last common ancestor of vertebrates is this very nifty larval stage of a boring, stationary filter feeder who circumvented the advent of its adult stage to become an extremely successful and varied phylum that would become fish, dinosaurs, amphibians, reptiles, and of course mammals and humans. read more

A) The occurrence of 7 independent duplications of individual Hox genes. B) The occurrence of 2 distinct duplications of the entire 7-gene cluster, followed by the loss of one cluster. read more

Believe it or not, the last common ancestor of all vertebrates was a descendant of a tunicate. Tunicates are dismally boring compared to vertebrates- they just latch onto the ground wherever their larval stage swims to and morphs into an unmoving, stationary filter feeder. read more

A stunningly preserved, soft-bodied fish that is more than 500 million years old could be the ancestor of almost all living vertebrates. The fossilized fish, called Metaspriggina, sports characteristic gill structures that later evolved into jawbones in jawed vertebrates, according to a new study. read more