Early vertebrates were not slow: rapid life histories in Devonian agnathans

Life history strategies such as rapid growth and high population turnover rates observed in vertebrates have been thought to have emerged relatively late in evolution. However, very little direct evidence exists at the species level for early vertebrates. In this study, a large fossil collection of over 450 specimens of Protaspis spp, heterostracan agnathans from the Cottonwood Canyon Formation at Beartooth Butte, Wyoming, from the Early Devonian, was analyzed. Morphological observations, analysis of bone plate completeness, and length-frequency analyses using ELEFAN—commonly used in recent fish studies—were applied to reconstruct growth rates, cohort structure, and ontogenetic processes. Protaspis specimens exhibited a continuous growth series from juvenile to adult stages, and a clear cohort structure was identified from the length-frequency distributions. The ELEFAN analysis suggested a life-history characterized by rapid growth and a short life span, and these features remained consistent in subset analyses restricted by species or locality, confirming the robustness of the estimates. Furthermore, the integration of the dermal bone plates progressed during the late stages of ontogeny, revealing that the rapid growth during the juvenile stage preceded the completion of this defensive structure. Comparisons of their growth parameters with those of extant fishes show that Protaspis does not align with slow-growing, long-lived “living fossil” taxa, but instead clusters with small-bodied, fast-growing species. These findings suggest that life-history strategies involving rapid growth and high population turnover were already established in early jawless vertebrates, much earlier than previously assumed.