Ontophyletics of the nervous system: development of the corpus callosum and evolution of axon tracts.

The evolution of nervous systems has included significant changes in the axon tracts of the central nervous system. These evolutionary changes required changes in axonal growth in embryos. During development, many axons reach their targets by following guidance cues that are organized as pathways in the embryonic substrate, and the overall pattern of the major axon tracts in the adult can be traced back to the fundamental pattern of such substrate pathways. Embryological and comparative anatomical studies suggest that most axon tracts, such as the anterior commissure, have evolved by the modified use of preexisting substrate pathways. On the other hand, recent developmental studies suggest that a few entirely new substrate pathways have arisen during evolution; these apparently provided opportunities for the formation of completely new axon tracts. The corpus callosum, which is found only in placental mammals, may be such a truly new axon tract. We propose that the evolution of the corpus callosum is founded on the emergence of a new preaxonal substrate pathway, the "glial sling," which bridges the two halves of the embryonic forebrain only in placental mammals.