Abordagens convergentes, novidades evolutivas e a origem da carapaça das tartarugas

Abstract

The origin of the turtle carapace has been for a long time an evolutionary mystery. Historically, two main hypotheses about its emergence disputed the interests of researchers: the composed origin proposed its genesis by the successive accumulation of osteoderms and their posterior fusion with the ribs and trunk vertebrae neural arches; the de novo origin, considered the carapace as a novel structure, derived from intense modification of the ribs and neural arches. In this review, I will show how recent advances on evolutionary developmental biology and new paleontological findings favored the latter hypothesis, filling the gaps about the origin and supporting the carapace as an evolutionary novelty, illustrating how integrative approaches can provide more detailed views on the evolutionary process. Keywords. Turtle carapace; Testudinata; Evo-Devo; Paleontology. DOI: 10.7594/revbio.16.01.01