The silurian period was when a lot of fishes originated. But we haven't got many really good fossils of them. They tend to be a bit scruffy and scrappy and fragmentary. A particularly successful evolutionary invention of this kind of time is jaws. Basicallyo jawed fish. The earliest vertebrates didn't have jaws. Their mouths were kind of suckers. And only two kinds of jawleus vertebrates survive to day. They are the lampray and the hagfish.
In this episode:
00:45 Piecing together the early history of jawed vertebrates
A wealth of fossils discovered in southern China shed new light onto the diversity of jawed and jawless fish during the Silurian period, over 400 million years ago. Nature editor Henry Gee explains the finds and what they mean for the history of jawed vertebrates like us.
Mice studies help explain why some people with a rare genetic condition have heightened musical abilities, and high-resolution images reveal how bees build honeycomb.
11:27 A lack of evidence in transgender policy making
Around the world, many laws are being proposed – and passed – regarding the rights of transgender people to participate in various aspects of society. We talk to Paisley Currah, who has written a World View for Nature arguing that these policies are frequently not backed up by data, and that policy affecting trans people’s lives needs to take a more evidence-based approach.