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Fig. 4 | Evolution: Education and Outreach

Fig. 4

From: Early Evolution of the Vertebrate Eye—Fossil Evidence

Fig. 4

a Left side of an eroded braincase of the placoderm fish Brindabellaspis Young, 1980 from Wee Jasper, Burrinjuck area, New South Wales, Australia. The specimen has been acid-etched from limestone to reveal preserved braincase structure in the form of perichondral bone layers (specimen illustrated by Goujet and Young 2004). Muscle pockets in the orbit (myodomes) are numbered according to the cranial nerve canals that connected them to the brain cavity (third and fourth cranial nerves). b Left lateral view of the oldest acid-etched braincase of a true bony fish (osteichthyan), also from Wee Jasper, Burrinjuck area (described by Basden and Young 2001); hy [7] is the opening for the hyomandibular branch of the facial nerve (7). c Front view of another arthrodire (the same group as in Fig. 3). This unique specimen shows the complete skull, braincase, cheek, and jawbones, with both eye capsules and the rostral capsule in place (jaws described by Young et al. 2001)

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