Daniel Snitting

Uppsala University | UU · Department of Organismal Biology

The origin and early diversification of jawed vertebrates involved major changes to skeletal and soft anatomy. Skeletal transformations can be examined directly by studying fossil stem gnathostomes; however, preservation of soft anatomy is rare. We describe the only known example of a three-dimensionally mineralized heart, thick-walled stomach, and...

Chondroitin/dermatan sulfate (CS/DS) proteoglycans are indispensable for animal development and homeostasis but the large number of enzymes involved in their biosynthesis have made CS/DS function a challenging problem to study genetically. In our study, we generated loss-of-function alleles in zebrafish genes encoding CS/DS biosynthetic enzymes and...

In this study, a new assemblage of Ediacaran metazoan fossils is reported from the basal Stáhpogieddi Formation on the Digermulen Peninsula of Arctic Norway, including Anulitubus n. gen. Moczydłowska in Moczydłowska et al., Anulitubus formosus n. gen. n. sp. Moczydłowska in Moczydłowska et al., Coniculus n. gen. Moczydłowska in Moczydłowska et al.,...

The first dinosaur embryos found inside megaloolithid eggs from Auca Mahuevo, Patagonia, were assigned to sauropod dinosaurs that lived approximately 80 million years ago. Discovered some 25 years ago, these considerably flattened specimens still remain the only unquestionable embryonic remains of a sauropod dinosaur providing an initial glimpse in...

We present a well-preserved skull of a titanosaurian embryo discovered inside an egg from Patagonia, Argentina. The egg, which had been illegally exported, was eventually brought to the attention of T.W.M. who realized its scientific importance after preparation exposed embryonic remains. T.M.W. secured the specimen (MCF-PVPH-874) and donated it to...

The tetrapodomorph fish Marsdenichthys longioccipitus from the Givetian-Frasnian of Mt. Howitt, Victoria, Australia, occupies an uncertain phylogenetic position. Marsdenichthys has been linked to the base of the Tristichopteridae, as well as to the poorly known Northern Hemisphere form Rhizodopsis, based on the presence of rounded scales bearing a...

Additional material of a large specimen of tristichopterid fish from the Upper Famennian Evieux Formation of Belgium is described. This large fish was previously assigned to Tristichopteridae gen. et sp. indet. due to the lack of diagnostic anatomical data. New available material consists of the internal surface of the parietal shield, vomers and a...

Abstract Snitting, D. 2009. Heddleichthys– a new tristichopterid genus from the Dura Den Formation, Midland Valley, Scotland (Famennian, Late Devonian). —Acta Zoologica (Stockholm) 90 (Suppl. 1): 273–285 A new tristichopterid genus, Heddleichthys, from the Famennian of Scotland is described based on material previously assigned to a number of diffe...

The tetrapodomorph fish Spodichthys buetleri from the Upper Devonian of East Greenland is redescribed from computed tomography scans of material originally studied by Erik Jarvik. A wealth of new anatomical data was revealed by scanning the nearly perfectly three-dimensional specimens, including detailed information on the shape of the brain cavity...