“…Although the nomenclature of mesodermal domains in the developing head suffers from disparities across the literature, at least part of the cardiopharyngeal field (CPF) designates an ALPMcentered progenitor pool that, in addition to forming the heart, also contributes to craniofacial and neck muscles (Diogo et al, 2015). Comparative anatomical and genetic studies across chordates have demonstrated joint cardiac and branchiomeric muscle formation, together with overlapping expression patterns in the anterior mesoderm of key regulators, including Nkx2.5, Isl1 and Tbx1 (Diogo et al, 2015;Felker et al, 2018;Gopalakrishnan et al, 2015;Heude et al, 2018;Lescroart et al, 2015;Michailovici et al, 2015;Paffett-Lugassy et al, 2017;Stolfi et al, 2010;Wang et al, 2019b). The evolutionary timeline of additional cranial muscle groups that are distinct from trunk muscle trajectories coincides with the adaption of multi-chambered hearts (Comai et al, 2019;Diogo et al, 2015;Heude et al, 2018;Theis et al, 2010).…”