While the common ancestor of vertebrates with synovial joints is still a mystery, the oldest specimen with evidence of these ...

More information: Sharma N, et al. Synovial joints were present in the common ancestor of jawed fish but lacking in jawless fish. PLOS Biology (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002990 ...

Altogether, these results show that synovial joints are shared across jawed fish, but apparently absent in jawless fish, indicating that these joints first evolved in the ancestors of jawed ...

Recent research reveals that synovial joints originated in early jawed fish, reshaping our understanding of vertebrate skeletal evolution and movement.

While these fish, the first true jawed fish, reached no great size during the Silurian, they were on their way to becoming one of the planet's top predators. Creepy-crawlies also began to appear ...

The efficient architecture of our joints, which allows our skeletons to be flexible and sturdy, originated among our most ancient jawed fish ancestors, according to a study published in the open ...