Giribet Gonzalo
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 16 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2002 Sep;24(3):345-57. doi: 10.1016/s1055-7903(02)00206-3.
The study of metazoan evolution has fascinated biologists for centuries, and it will certainly keep doing so. Recent interest on the origin of metazoan body plans, early metazoan evolution, genetic mechanisms generating disparity and diversity, molecular clock information, paleontology, and biogeochemistry is contributing to a better understanding of the current phyletic diversity. Unfortunately, the pattern of the metazoan tree of life still shows some important gaps in knowledge. It is the aim of this article to review some of the most important issues related to the inference of the metazoan tree, and point towards possible ways of solving certain obscure aspects in the history of animal evolution. A new hypothesis of the metazoan diversification during the Cambrian explosion is proposed by synthesizing ideas from phylogenetics, molecular evolution, paleontology, and developmental biology.
几个世纪以来，后生动物进化的研究一直吸引着生物学家，而且肯定还会继续如此。最近对后生动物身体结构的起源、早期后生动物进化、产生差异和多样性的遗传机制、分子钟信息、古生物学和生物地球化学的关注，有助于更好地理解当前的系统发育多样性。不幸的是，后生动物生命树的模式在知识上仍存在一些重要空白。本文的目的是回顾一些与后生动物树推断相关的最重要问题，并指出解决动物进化史上某些模糊方面的可能方法。通过综合系统发育学、分子进化、古生物学和发育生物学的观点，提出了一个关于寒武纪大爆发期间后生动物多样化的新假说。
