Duplication and Losses of Opsin Genes in Lophotrochozoan Evolution.

Opsins are G-coupled receptors playing a key role in metazoan visual processes. While many studies enriched our understanding of opsin diversity in several animal clades, the opsin evolution in Lophotrochozoa, one of the major metazoan groups, remains poorly understood. Using recently developed phylogenetic approaches, we investigated the opsin evolution in 74 lophotrochozoan genomes. We found that the common ancestor of Lophotrochozoa possessed at least seven opsin paralog groups that underwent divergent evolutionary history in the different phyla. Furthermore, we showed for the first time opsin-related molecules in Bilateria that we named pseudopsins, which may prove critical in uncovering opsin evolution.

Three-dimensional modelling, disparity and ecology of the first Cambrian apex predators.

Radiodonts evolved to become the largest nektonic predators in the Cambrian period, persisting into the Ordovician and perhaps up until the Devonian period. They used a pair of large frontal appendages together with a radial mouth apparatus to capture and manipulate their prey, and had evolved a range of species with distinct appendage morphologies by the Early Cambrian (approx. 521 Ma). However, since their discovery, there has been a lack of understanding about their basic functional anatomy, and thus their ecology. To explore radiodont modes of feeding, we have digitally modelled different appendage morphologies represented by Anomalocaris canadensis, Hurdia victoria, Peytoia nathorsti, Amplectobelua stephenensis and Cambroraster falcatus from the Burgess Shale. Our results corroborate ideas that there was probably a significant (functional and hence behavioural) diversity among different radiodont species with adaptations for feeding on differently sized prey (0.07 cm up to 10 cm). We argue here that Cambroraster falcatus appendages were suited for feeding on suspended particles rather than filtering sediment. Given the limited dexterity and lack of accessory feeding appendages as seen in modern arthropods, feeding must have been inefficient and 'messy', which may explain their subsequent replacement by crown-group arthropods, cephalopods and jawed vertebrates.

A giant stem-group chaetognath.

Chaetognaths, with their characteristic grasping spines, are the oldest known pelagic predators, found in the lowest Cambrian (Terreneuvian). Here, we describe a large stem chaetognath, Timorebestia koprii gen. et sp. nov., from the lower Cambrian Sirius Passet Lagerstätte, which exhibits lateral and caudal fins, a distinct head region with long antennae and a jaw apparatus similar to Amiskwia sagittiformis. Amiskwia has previously been interpreted as a total-group chaetognathiferan, as either a stem-chaetognath or gnathostomulid. We show that T. koprii shares a ventral ganglion with chaetognaths to the exclusion of other animal groups, firmly placing these fossils on the chaetognath stem. The large size (up to 30 cm) and gut contents in T. koprii suggest that early chaetognaths occupied a higher trophic position in pelagic food chains than today.