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Early Vertebrate Evolution Fossils, Function and Phylogeny: Papers on Early Vertebrate Evolution in Honour of Professor Jennifer A Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 109, 1–14, 2019 (for 2018) Early Vertebrate Evolution Fossils, function and phylogeny: Papers on early vertebrate evolution in honour of Professor Jennifer A. Clack – Introduction Marcello RUTA1*, Per E. AHLBERG2 and Timothy R. SMITHSON3 1 School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Joseph Banks Laboratories, Green Lane, Lincoln LN6 7DL, UK. Email: [email protected] 2 Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University, Norbyva¨gen 18A, 752 36 Uppsala, Sweden. 3 University Museum of Zoology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EJ, UK. *Corresponding author This special issue of the Earth and Environmental Science for their prompt and enthusiastic responses to our invitation Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (EESTRSE) to contribute research papers, for attending to manuscript celebrates the career and scientific achievements of Professor revisions in a timely fashion, and for providing intellectually Jennifer (Jenny) Alice Clack FRS, FLS, Professor Emeritus stimulating outputs. We acknowledge the demanding task of and Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University all our referees, who acted with courtesy and professionalism Museum of Zoology, Cambridge (UMZC). In recognition of in reviewing the original manuscripts and, often, their revised Jenny’s professional services and outstanding accomplish- versions. Special thanks go to some of our contributors for ments in vertebrate palaeontology, and to mark her official their generous offer to referee colleagues’ manuscripts when retirement in 2015, we have assembled 21 original research we experienced difficulties with reviewer selection. We also papers from 55 international scientists. The breadth of topics thank Rob Clack and Sarah Wallace-Johnson for their very reflects Jenny’s wide-ranging interests. Beside vertebrate helpful comments, corrections, and additions to the biograph- palaeontology, these include (but are not limited to) compara- ical section, and for providing many of the photographs we tive anatomy, development, phylogeny, macroevolution, bio- have used to illustrate it. We are grateful to the Royal Society mechanics, palaeoecology, palaeobiogeography, geology, and of Edinburgh for making this volume possible, and to our stratigraphy. The contributors to this volume include many of Editor-in-Chief, Stig Walsh, for coordinating various stages Jenny’s colleagues, collaborators, former students, and long- of its production. We would like to take this opportunity to time friends. We are especially delighted to see the scientific thank Vicki Hammond, former Journals and Archive Officer endeavours of several young scientists at early stages of their at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, for providing unwavering careers alongside those of established professionals – a solid support, strong encouragement, and prompt technical assistance testament to Jenny’s scholarly influence. with countless aspects of manuscript handling, and for attending The planning of this volume started in the late spring of to our numerous queries with competence and kindness. Vicki 2017, when we submitted a formal proposal to the Editorial has been a driving force behind EESTRSE for many years, Board of EESTRSE. Key contributions to the study of early until her retirement in 2018, and greatly facilitated our editorial vertebrates, many authored by Jenny herself, have featured in efforts during the initial stages of this Festschrift production. the pages of EESTRSE. Two and a half decades ago, a seminal After Vicki’s retirement, we were delighted to receive equally volume on the Scottish fossil site of East Kirkton, published in strong support and invaluable help from Susie Bloor, Technical what was then known as the Transactions of the Royal Society Editor at Cambridge University Press, who guided us through of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, opened a new era in the study of all final stages of volume editing, ensuring a steady and fast Palaeozoic vertebrates, particularly Carboniferous tetrapods. delivery of the revised manuscripts to her production team. As recently as the summer of 2018, EESTRSE issued a special Last but not least, our thanks go to Amy Woolf (Cambridge volume dedicated to the life and work of the late Stan Wood, University Press) and Sharon Nickels (Sunrise Setting Ltd.) whose painstaking fossil-collecting efforts greatly expanded our for their painstaking work with last-minute queries concerning knowledge of the Carboniferous world. For these reasons, proof corrections, typographic and iconographic glitches, and EESTRSE appeared to us to represent an excellent venue for paper layouts. a Festschrift in honour of Jenny, and an appropriate vehicle for consolidating the UK’s long-standing tradition of research on early vertebrates. 1. Volume synopsis Alongside the planning of the volume, we also organised a one-day conference in Jenny’s honour. This was held at the Although early tetrapods feature prominently in Jenny’s work, University of Cambridge on 13th December 2017 (Dunne & several other vertebrate groups have captured her interest Armfield 2018) and proved to be immensely successful. It was throughout her career. Five palaeoichthyological papers – hosted by the Department of Zoology and the University two on actinopterygians and three on sarcopterygians – Museum of Zoology and received generous sponsorship from discuss various aspects of osteichthyan biology. Coates and The Linnean Society, The Palaeontological Association, and Tietjen describe a new genus of stem-group ray-finned fish Dunedin Academic Press. Many of the volume contributors and examine the structural and functional variety of pectoral took part in the conference and we thank all our colleagues fins in early members of this clade. Friedman et al. present Downloaded6 2019 from Thehttps://www.cambridge.org/core Royal Society of Edinburgh.. IP address: doi:10.1017/S1755691019000057 170.106.33.19, on 28 Sep 2021 at 07:47:18, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1755691019000057 2 MARCELLO RUTA ET AL. evidence for durophagy in their study of Eurynotus crenatus Jenny’s approach to the study of extinct vertebrates reveals and discuss the diversification of feeding ecologies in ray- attention to the wider physical context – geological, strati- finned fish following the end-Devonian mass extinction. graphic, environmental – accompanying fossil data. Two Smithson et al. address dipnoan diversity in the latest early papers focus on the stratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental Carboniferous through a re-examination of historically impor- settings for tetrapod origins. Marshall et al. provide crucial tant fossil material collected by Ramsay Traquair and present new information on the age of the uppermost part of the Old new data on the ontogeny of lungfish tooth plates. Lebedev Red Sandstone – an all-time favourite in geological studies – and Cle´ment introduce us to new tetrapodomorph taxa from and on the position of the Devonian–Carboniferous boundary the Middle–Late Devonian of northwestern Russia. Kamska through their detailed analysis of palynological and palaeoich- et al. discuss the morphology and ontogeny of the humerus of thyological data from recently discovered stratigraphic sequences the large Devonian tetrapodomorph Hyneria lindae and present in central Scotland and the Scottish Borders. Millward et al. palaeohistological evidence in support of the slow skeletal supply a detailed palaeogeographic, paleoclimatic, and palaeo- development, large genome size, and possible neotenic nature environmental analysis of the coastal wetland habitats of of this near-tetrapod relative. northern Great Britain where some of the earliest known Evolutionary developmental biology is an ever-expanding Carboniferous tetrapods lived. and rapidly changing field that Jenny has embraced with en- Four macroevolutionary papers fall under the broad um- thusiasm since its inception, through her work on vertebrates’ brellas of theory and practice of phylogenetic analysis, patterns paired appendages and ears. Aptly, two papers focus on these and processes of phenotypic change in deep time, and tempo two anatomical regions in light of embryological data from and mode of evolution. Tschopp and Upchurch review specimen- two new model organisms. Dickson and Pierce give novel based approaches to the construction of cladograms from mor- insights into the origin and evolution of paired limbs through phological data using maximum parsimony as an optimality their analysis of pectoral fin development and musculoskeletal criterion, highlighting potential and limitations intrinsic to anatomy in anglerfish. Pfaff et al. produce a detailed account these methodological protocols. Lee et al. address the complex of the ontogeny of the ear region in the skate Leucoraja erinacea question of a Laurasian vs Gondwanan origin for dinosaurs and discuss the relevance of cartilaginous fish in comparative using a new Bayesian method that simultaneously accounts evolutionary and developmental studies of vertebrate neuro- for phylogeny, fossil age and location, and changes in the inter- anatomy. connections among geographic areas through time. Witzmann Eight papers are devoted to early tetrapods, including two and Ruta examine the complex relationships between orbital general and six taxonomic contributions. Ahlberg presents an and palatal openings in early tetrapods, especially temno- in-depth review of
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