The origin of our own group, the vertebrates, has received quite the shake up. One of the important fossil players has been found to be an invertebrate imposter, and this completely changes our understanding of this evolutionary episode. We take a look at why and when, and how this boils to down to a interesting question all about teeth. Did our entire skeleton come from teeth on the outside of our bodies, even before jaws existed? Is this why we now get tooth ache?

The paper is "The origin of vertebrate teeth and evolution of sensory exoskeletons" by Yara Haridy and colleagues, published in Nature in May 2025. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08944-w

Wide screen art: Brian Engh.