Squamation and scale morphology at the root of jawed vertebrates
Cite this dataset
Wang, Yajing; Zhu, Min (2022). Squamation and scale morphology at the root of jawed vertebrates [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fttdz08vb
Abstract
Placoderms, as the earliest branching jawed vertebrates, are crucial to understanding how the characters of crown gnathostomes comprising Chondrichthyes and Osteichthyes evolved from their stem relatives. Despite the growing knowledge of the anatomy and diversity of placoderms over the past decade, the dermal scales of placoderms are predominantly known from isolated material, either morphologically or histologically, resulting in their squamation being poorly understood. Here we provide a comprehensive description of the squamation and scale morphology of a primitive taxon of Antiarcha (a clade at the root of jawed vertebrates), Parayunnanolepis xitunensis, based on the virtual restoration of an articulated specimen by using X-ray computed tomography. Thirteen morphotypes of scales are classified to exhibit how the morphology changes with their position on the body in primitive antiarchs, based on which nine areas of the post-thoracic body are distinguished to show their scale variations in the dorsal, flank, ventral, and caudal lobe regions. In this study, the histological structure of yunnanolepidoid scales is described for the first time based on disarticulated scales from the type locality and horizon of P. xitunensis. The results demonstrate that yunnanolepidoid scales are remarkably different from their dermal plates as well as euantiarch scales in lack of a well-developed middle layer. Together, our study reveals that the high regionalization of squamation and the bipartite histological structure of scales might be plesiomorphic for antiarchs, and jawed vertebrates in general.
Methods
This study involves the holotype of P. xitunensis IVPP V11679.1 and six disarticulated scales IVPP V28642–V28647 from Xitun village, Cuifengshan in Qujing city (Yunnan Province). They were collected from the middle part of the Xitun Formation (late Lochkovian) and housed in the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.
V11679.1 was scanned using the Nano-CT system (Phoenix x-ray, GE Measurement & Control) at a pixel resolution of 5.99 μm in the Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academic of Science, Beijing. It was scanned at 90 kV, 100 μA, 1 s exposure time, with a 9 μm focal spot size. V28642–V28647 were processed with the diluted acetic acid and then scanned using the Nano-CT at 80 kV and100 μA, with a 1.85 μm voxel size. Raw data were pre-processed in VG Studio Max 3.3, and reconstructions were performed using Mimics 19.0.
Usage notes
CT scan data are available in Mimics, reconstructions (exported as .stl files) in VG Studio Max and scale measurement data in Microsoft Excel.
Funding
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Award: 42130209
Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Award: XDA19050102
Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Award: XDB26000000