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Hagfish, which lack both jaws and vertebrae, have long been the subject of intense interest owing to their position at a crucial point in the evolutionary transition to a truly vertebrate body plan^,,,. However, unlike the comparatively well characterized vertebrate agnathan lamprey, little is known about hagfish development. The inability to analyse hagfish at early embryonic stages has frustrated attempts to resolve questions with important phylogenetic implications, including fundamental ones relating to the emergence of the neural crest^,,. Here we report the obtainment of multiple pharyngula-stage embryos of the hagfish species Eptatretus burgeri and our preliminary analyses of their early development. We present histological evidence of putative neural crest cells, which appear as delaminated cells that migrate along pathways corresponding to neural crest cells in fish and amphibians^,,,,,. Molecular cloning studies …