Vertebrate phylogeny, gross brain morphology, and homologous regions in the forebrain.
(A) Phylogenetic tree of vertebrates and timeline of major events in amniote evolution. Shaded area in the phylogenetic tree indicates ‘reptiles’ as defined in the text. Red lines (lower panel) indicate the origin of amniotes (320 million years ago), the origin of dinosaurs (230 million years ago) and their extinction (65 million years ago). Right panel: schematic drawings showing brains (lateral view, anterior left) of vertebrate representatives: from top to bottom, a fish (knife-fish), an amphibian (tiger salamander), a reptile (monitor lizard), a bird (pigeon) and a mammal (hedgehog tenrec). Major subdivisions (examples in color) are present in all species but appear in different proportions. Adapted from Nieuwenhuys et al. (1998), with kind permission from Springer Science and Business Media. (B) Transverse section of the right hemisphere of vertebrate representatives: from top to bottom, a fish (zebrafish), an amphibian (frog), a reptile (lizard), a bird (pigeon) and a mammal (rat). Colors represent conserved pallial subdivisions. Adapted from Bruce and Neary (1995), Bruce (2007) and Mueller et al. (2011).