Dear All,
At risk of going off-thread on Xavier-net, I was wondering how the members of the vertebrate and non-backbone-centric scientific communities have received the description of stem-deuterostomes from the Lower Cambrian Cheng-Jiang Fauna?
Shu, D.-G., Conway Morris, S., Han, J., Chen, L., Zhang, X.-L., Zhang, Z.-F., Liu, H.-Q., Li, Y. and Liu, J.-N. 2001. Primitive deuterostomes from the Chengjiang Lagerstätte (Lower Cambrian, China). Nature, 414, 419-424.
There has been a commentary by Thurston Lacalli [Lacalli, T. C. 2002. Vetulicolians - are they deuterostomes? chordates? Bioessays, 24, 208-211] but, otherwise, the scientific response has been silence (although I am aware that Dick Jefferies is of the opinion that at least one of them is a mitrate).
I have my own opinion about these beasties, of course, but I was wondering whether others, who might have been festering on this topic, might care to share their views?
Phil.
Dr Philip C J Donoghue
Lecturer in Palaeobiology
Department of Earth Sciences
GEES
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham B15 2TT, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 121 414 6151
Fax: +44 (0) 121 414 4942
E: p.c.j.donoghue@bham.ac.uk