Tuesday, April 05, 2005

Where do they all come from?

Where do they all come from?
(Christian Science Monitor)
Evo Devo, evolutionary developmental biology, intertwines Earth’s family of animals in a way not done in the past: Its most surprising finding is that all animals, including those with arms, wings, or fins, originated from a small number of primitive “master” genes.

Over long spans of time, that “ancient tool kit” of genes evolved animals and created the enormous diversity around us: stripes in zebras, spectacularly colored butterfly wings, and intricate human hands. One ancient gene led to the creation of eyes across the entire animal kingdom, writes Carroll, a genetics professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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