Increasing control over biomineralization in conodont evolution

Bryan Shirley; Isabella Leonhard; Duncan j. e. Murdock; John Repetski; Przemysław Świś; Michel Bestmann; Pat Trimby; Markus Ohl; Oliver Plümper; Helen E. King; Emilia Jarochowska

doi:10.1038/s41467-024-49526-0

Increasing control over biomineralization in conodont evolution

Bryan Shirley
, Isabella Leonhard
, Duncan j. e. Murdock
, John Repetski
, Przemysław Świś
, Michel Bestmann
, Pat Trimby
, Markus Ohl
, Oliver Plümper
, Helen E. King
, Emilia Jarochowska^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Vertebrates use the phosphate mineral apatite in their skeletons, which allowed them to develop tissues such as enamel, characterized by an outstanding combination of hardness and elasticity. It has been hypothesized that the evolution of the earliest vertebrate skeletal tissues, found in the teeth of the extinct group of conodonts, was driven by adaptation to dental function. We test this hypothesis quantitatively and demonstrate that the crystallographic order increased throughout the early evolution of conodont teeth in parallel with morphological adaptation to food processing. With the c-axes of apatite crystals oriented perpendicular to the functional feeding surfaces, the strongest resistance to uniaxial compressional stress is conferred along the long axes of denticles. Our results support increasing control over biomineralization in the first skeletonized vertebrates and allow us to test models of functional morphology and material properties across conodont dental diversity.

Original language	English
Article number	5273
Number of pages	13
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	15
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49526-0
Publication status	Published - 20 Jun 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.

Funding

BS and EJ were supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (project JA 2718/3-1). BS was also supported by the EXCITE Network and DAAD. We thank B. Leipner-Mata for help in sample preparation and J.D. Loch and J.F. Taylor for collecting the sample with Cambrian conodonts. This publication results from work carried out under Trans-National Access action under the support of EXCITE - EC- HORIZON 2020 -INFRAIA 2020 Integrating Activities for Starting Communities under grant agreement N.101005611.

Funders	Funder number
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
EXCITE Network
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft	JA 2718/3-1
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
European Commission	101005611
European Commission

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10.1038/s41467-024-49526-0Licence: CC BY

Shirley_et_al._2024Final published version, 2.74 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "Vertebrates use the phosphate mineral apatite in their skeletons, which allowed them to develop tissues such as enamel, characterized by an outstanding combination of hardness and elasticity. It has been hypothesized that the evolution of the earliest vertebrate skeletal tissues, found in the teeth of the extinct group of conodonts, was driven by adaptation to dental function. We test this hypothesis quantitatively and demonstrate that the crystallographic order increased throughout the early evolution of conodont teeth in parallel with morphological adaptation to food processing. With the c-axes of apatite crystals oriented perpendicular to the functional feeding surfaces, the strongest resistance to uniaxial compressional stress is conferred along the long axes of denticles. Our results support increasing control over biomineralization in the first skeletonized vertebrates and allow us to test models of functional morphology and material properties across conodont dental diversity.",

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AU - Shirley, Bryan

AU - Leonhard, Isabella

AU - Murdock, Duncan j. e.

AU - Repetski, John

AU - Świś, Przemysław

AU - Bestmann, Michel

AU - Trimby, Pat

AU - Ohl, Markus

AU - Plümper, Oliver

AU - King, Helen E.

AU - Jarochowska, Emilia

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AB - Vertebrates use the phosphate mineral apatite in their skeletons, which allowed them to develop tissues such as enamel, characterized by an outstanding combination of hardness and elasticity. It has been hypothesized that the evolution of the earliest vertebrate skeletal tissues, found in the teeth of the extinct group of conodonts, was driven by adaptation to dental function. We test this hypothesis quantitatively and demonstrate that the crystallographic order increased throughout the early evolution of conodont teeth in parallel with morphological adaptation to food processing. With the c-axes of apatite crystals oriented perpendicular to the functional feeding surfaces, the strongest resistance to uniaxial compressional stress is conferred along the long axes of denticles. Our results support increasing control over biomineralization in the first skeletonized vertebrates and allow us to test models of functional morphology and material properties across conodont dental diversity.

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Increasing control over biomineralization in conodont evolution

Abstract

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Funding

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