Roger Benson

Abstract Tetrapods (limbed vertebrates) include lissamphibians and amniotes, and now comprise half of all vertebrate species, with particular importance on land. Limbs first appeared in stem tetrapods by the Late Devonian, 365 million years ago1,2,3,4,5. However, many taxa either have limbs with fin-like functional anatomy or have secondarily lost them, raising questions about the ecological context and early evolution of the tetrapod limb6.

Abstract Reefs are important hotspots of marine biodiversity today and have acted as cradles of diversification in the geological past. However, we know little about how the diversity of reef-supporting regions varied through deep time, and how this differed from other regions. We quantified regional diversity patterns in reef-supporting and non–reef-supporting regions in the fossil record of Phanerozoic marine invertebrates.