Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo
1/5 A fascinating new #ctenophore preprint 🧵 Ferraioli et al. uncover a “ladder-like” neural architecture in the living comb jelly Mnemiopsis and connect it to preserved neuroanatomical traces in Cambrian fossils. But the real importance isn’t the anatomy. It’s what the anatomy implies.

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Show threadIñaki Ruiz-TrilloMay 27
2/5 For years, discussions about early nervous system evolution have often focused on: - when neurons appeared - whether ctenophore neurons evolved independently But this work points toward something equally important: that early animal evolution involved extensive experimentation.
Show threadIñaki Ruiz-TrilloMay 27
3/5 What I find especially interesting is that the neural organization appears tightly linked to locomotion, body geometry
& sensory coordination. This hints at strong architectural and functional constraints shaping early nervous systems during the Cambrian diversification.
Show threadIñaki Ruiz-TrilloMay 27
4/5 Cambrian diversity may reflect a phase of intense experimentation in how pre-existing molecular and developmental modules could be organized into new multicellular architectures. So, new ways of integrating ancestral modules into coherent systems.
Show threadIñaki Ruiz-TrilloMay 27
5/5 Modern animals may therefore represent the surviving outcomes of a much broader space of biological possibilities. Really stimulating work. Thanks so much to the authors! @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] et al.