Scientists prove a centuries-old theory that a crucial feature in our ability to hear evolved from fish gills
- The team of scientists from China and Europe found concrete evidence of a fossilised ‘spirical gill’
- These spiricals have long been thought to have eventually evolved into the middle ear canal on most land animals
Over 150 years ago, a German anatomist named Carl Gegenbaur theorised that the best place to look for clues into evolutionary history would be by finding similarities in animals that are far different from one another.
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Perfectly preserved hadrosaurus embryo fossil discovered in China
According to Per Ahlberg, a professor from Uppsala University in Sweden and a study author, the crucial fact to understand is that all vertebrate embryos have a series of “gill pouches” that will eventually diverge during the animal’s development.
Ahlberg said that in some animals they develop into fully formed gills, but in sharks and rays, it turns into a “miniature gill called a spirical”, which appears like a hole near the eye and is used to intake water to breathe.