Reconstructing the Life Cycle and the Feeding of Ancestral Vertebrates

  • Jon Mallatt
Chapter
Part of the NATO ASI Series book series (NSSA, volume 103)

Abstract

One goal of this symposium is to examine the earliest evolution of the vertebrates. This problem can be approached from an ecological perspective, by considering possible habitats and feeding modes of ancestral Paleozoic fish. This chapter will expand and re-evaluate some ideas put forth recently (Mallatt, 1984b). It deals with the initial vertebrate adaptive radiation, which occurred between the Cambrian and the Devonian periods, from about 550 to 375 million years ago. Fossil documentation of this radiation is fragmentary, so extant animals and habitats must be used to help interpret their Paleozoic ancestors and analogues. Except for its latest phase, this earliest radiation of fishes was probably confined to shallow marine environments (Denison, 1956; Spjeldnaes, 1967; Ritchie and Gilbert-Tomlinson, 1977; Repetski, 1978; Darby, 1982). The fossil record, while incomplete, is unambiguous on this point: there are no demonstrably freshwater fossil vertebrates known until the late Silurian (Denison, 1956).

Keywords

Suspension Feeder Shallow Marine Environment Early Vertebrate Suspension Feeding Ancestral Vertebrate 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Plenum Press, New York 1985

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jon Mallatt
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of ZoologyWashington State UniversityPullmanUSA

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