Vertebrate Skull Evolution Revised Again
New research is forcing
scientists to rewrite the
vertebrate skull evolution story
by Jerry Bergman, PhD
I have written scores of times about new research that has forced paleontologists to rewrite their theory of evolution. This time, the rewriting involves the evolution of the vertebrate skull. A new detailed anatomical study of the African coelacanth concluded that 87 percent of the muscle structure system details were wrong! For decades, the African coelacanth was regarded by evolutionists as a ‘Missing Link,’ an important find in understanding the distant past that “upends hypotheses about the origin and diversification of vertebrate skull muscles.”[1]
Background of the “scientific storm”[2]
The story of the coelacanth is famous because, in 1938, a creature thought extinct for millions of years—known only from fossils—was found alive in the West Indian Ocean.[3] The discovery was significant because the coelacanth was long regarded as important evidence for gradual evolution. In fact, it “was generally thought to be the ‘missing link’ between aquatic and terrestrial vertebrates.”[4] The 1938 find shattered the idea of the coelacanth as a “missing link,” because a living animal could hardly serve as proof of a vanished stage of evolution. It was quickly relabeled a “living fossil,” and subsequent discoveries about it have stirred fresh upheaval in paleontological thought. Specifically, recent research suggests that the coelacanth—“one of the most iconic ‘living fossils,’ “has been misleading evolutionary biology for decades,” requiring a rewriting of the fossil record.[5]
Coelacanth Preserved specimen in the Natural History Museum, Vienna, Austria (Wikimedia Commons).
In short, University of São Paulo’s Aléssio Datovo completed a detailed anatomical analysis of the coelacanth, the results of which were published in April of this year in Science Advances.[6] The comparative analysis that Datovo completed used a high-resolution, non-invasive imaging technique called three-dimensional microtomography to determine musculoskeletal morphology in living and fossil animals. Micro-CT technology, which uses X-rays to create 3-D images, is capable of defining fine anatomy in brittle specimens. It is now a mainstream method used to enable accurate quantification of muscle fiber numbers, attachment areas, and bone shapes. Their re-analysis revealed that only about 13 percent of the purported evolutionary muscle novelties in coelacanths, previously linked to major vertebrate lineages, could be confirmed as accurate.”[7]
Fig. 1. Cranial musculoskeletal system of African coelacanth, L. chalumnae, with associated motor branches of cranial nerves. From Datovo and Johnson, Science Advances (2025).
They further concluded the following:
Our study markedly illustrates a second problem: the lack of reliable information about musculature in the literature. Despite being one of the most iconic living vertebrates, we found a plethora of errors in the identification of cranial muscles in the African coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), some of which have been replicated for nearly 70 years. Given the key position of coelacanths in the vertebrate tree of life, correcting these errors has profound implications for understanding the early gnathostome evolution.[8]
This plethora of errors points to a major problem: anatomy and evolution textbooks have perpetuated these mistakes for more than seven decades, specifically the “misidentification of putative cranial muscles in coelacanths that were actually ligaments.” Numerous other contradictions also appear throughout the coelacanth literature. [9] Datovo et al. reiterated this problem, noting that when they examined the specimens, they detected many more errors than they expected. For example, “11 structures described as muscles were actually ligaments or other types of connective tissue. This has drastic consequences for the functioning of the mouth and breathing, because muscles perform movement, while ligaments only transmit it.”[10]
Summary
Thompson’s excellent summary concluded that the significance of “the coelacanth, a once-fossilized symbol of evolutionary stasis, has emerged as a living source of scientific reformation, compelling scientists to reconsider the origin of one of the most fundamental vertebrate mechanisms: the skull and its muscles.” One conclusion from the new findings is that the coelacanth’s cranial musculature is more similar to cartilaginous fishes and tetrapods, rather than to ray-finned fishes, as previously believed. This discovery has forced a major revision of the evolutionary tree. It is another example of misleading research by evolutionists being perpetuated for decades in textbooks. Thanks to the improved imaging techniques, among other things, these errors have now been exposed. The implications of these results for creationist perspectives merit further evaluation.
References
[1] Thompson, James, “Why a “living fossil” fish is forcing scientists to rewrite the story of vertebrate skull evolution,” Modern Engineering Marvels. https://modernengineeringmarvels.com/2025/07/30/why-a-living-fossil-fish-is-forcing-scientists-to-rewrite-the-story-of-vertebrate-skull-evolution/, 30 July 2025.
[2] Thompson, 2025
[3] Bergman, Jerry, “Coelacanth: The transitional fossil that wasn’t,” Creation 43(4):39–41, October 2021.
[4] Meyer, A., “Molecular evidence on the origin of tetrapods and the relationships of the coelacanth,” Trends in Ecology & Evolution 10(3):111–116, March 1995.
[5] Thompson, 2025.
[6] Datovo, Aléssio, “Coelacanths illuminate deep-time evolution of cranial musculature in jawed vertebrates,” Science Advances 11(18), DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adt1576, 30 April 2025.
[7] Thompson, 2025.
[8] Datovo, 2025.
[9] Thompson, 2025.
[10] Thompson, 2025.
Dr. Jerry Bergman has taught biology, genetics, chemistry, biochemistry, anthropology, geology, and microbiology for over 40 years at several colleges and universities including Bowling Green State University, Medical College of Ohio where he was a research associate in experimental pathology, and The University of Toledo. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, Wayne State University in Detroit, the University of Toledo, and Bowling Green State University. He has over 1,900 publications in 14 languages and 40 books and monographs. His books and textbooks that include chapters that he authored are in over 1,800 college libraries in 27 countries. So far over 80,000 copies of the 60 books and monographs that he has authored or co-authored are in print. For more articles by Dr Bergman, see his Author Profile.