By pooling their expertise, researchers probe paleontological puzzles

 

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Peer inside the mouth of a fish and you're likely to find a dark, fishy cavern. But when NESCent postdoc Brian Sidlauskas contemplates the front of a fish, he sees a window into its evolutionary past. Working in collaboration with developmental biologist Chuck Kimmel and paleontologist Jennifer Clack, Sidlauskas and colleagues seek to understand the developmental changes accompanying an important chapter in vertebrate evolution--the transition from fish to amphibians.

photo by Thorsen Photography
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