sitemap contact/access JAPANESE
 
Center for Developmental Biology  
 
About Research News Learning Center Meetings and Activities Jobs Affiliated Institutions
         
 
CDB Seminars
CDB Meetings
CDB Symposia
Other Events
RIKEN programs
 
 
Date and Time: 2011-07-26 16:00 - 17:00
Venue: Auditorium C1F
Speaker: Marcelo Sánchez
University of Zürich
Title: The contributions of palaeontology to the study of development in a molecular world
Poster:click here to download (PDF)
Host: Kuratani Shigeru
Summary :Evolution happens in deep time, so if we wish to understand the
evolution of form in organismal diversity, it would be paramount to
examine the contributions that fossils can make to this task. A review
of published literature, summarized in a web-database, shows that
palaeontological data can address mostly late aspects of ontogeny, with
palaeohistology its fastest growing field. Indirect information from
fossils, even with a uniformitarian approach, reveals developmental
novelties. Examples include mechanisms of skeletal mineralization,
somitogenesis and Hox-gene expression domains, and patterns of fish
squamation. Different ways to develop bone compactness, as in some
semi-aquatic extinct marine reptiles and recent ones, are yet another
example of plasticity in face of the adaptation/constraint dichotomy.
Comparative ontogenetic data reveal that allometric patterns of growth
are not simply econstraintsf but rather evolve largely coupled with
ecological demands, as in the morphological radiation of rodents.


 
list of seminars Back to the list
 


Copyright (C) CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY All rights reserved.