2026 Prather Lecture Series: Neil H. Shubin

Neil H. Shubin
Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, The University of Chicago 
President-Elect, National Academy of Sciences
 

Fossils, Genes, and the Origin of Limbs

Abstract: Tetrapod limbs are characterized by three developmental and anatomical compartments: stylopid (upper arm or leg), zeugopod (forearm or foreleg) and autopod (wrists, ankles and digits). Fossils reveal that all three segments are present in the Devonian ancestors of tetrapods. While extant fish do not have the anatomical equivalents of these regions, antecedents exist at the genetic level. For example, Hox gene expression, regulation and 3D chromosomal organization reveal equivalents in fish and suggest scenarios for their origin. The chromosomal region involved with the patterning of digits in tetrapods and, to a lesser extent the terminal region of fish fins, likely arose via cooption from mechanisms patterning the cloaca.

The Prather Lecture Series is co-hosted by OEB and MCB.