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The last common bilaterian ancestor

¹ Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. 20560, USA
² Division of Biology 156-29, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA

*Authors for correspondence (e-mail: erwin.doug{at}nmnh.si.edu or davidson{at}caltech.edu)

Accepted 11 April 2002

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.

Key words: Protostome-deuterostome ancestor, Metazoan phyla, Developmental evolution, Gene regulation, Conserved sequences

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