The last common bilaterian ancestor
2002/07/01 by Douglas H. Erwin, Eric H. Davidson · 322 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Ancestor #Biological evolution #Biology #Body plan #Deuterostome #Echinoderm biology and ecology #Evolutionary biology #Evolutionary developmental biology #Gene #Genetics #Macroevolution #Most recent common ancestor #Organism #Paleontology #Paleontology and Stratigraphy of Fossils #Phylogenetics #Protist diversity and phylogeny #Tunicate
paper · open access · doi:10.1242/dev.129.13.3021
published in Development 129(13), 3021-3032 (The Company of Biologists)
openalex publication_date 2002/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Abstract
Many regulatory genes appear to be utilized in at least superficially similar ways in the development of particular body parts in Drosophila and in chordates. These similarities have been widely interpreted as functional homologies, producing the conventional view of the last common protostome-deuterostome ancestor (PDA) as a complex organism that possessed some of the same body parts as modern bilaterians. Here we discuss an alternative view, in which the last common PDA had a less complex body plan than is frequently conceived. This reconstruction alters expectations for Neoproterozoic fossil remains that could illustrate the pathways of bilaterian evolution.
Citations
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