Scientists Solve the Puzzle of Starfish Body Design

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Scientists Solve the Puzzle of Starfish Body Design​

JEREMY GAY
6 DAYS AGO

Echinoderms – starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers, have been the subject of some recent research to try to ascertain how they developed their pentaradial body shapes. Starfish evolved some 540 million years ago, and from bilateral ancestors – animals with two symmetrical sides – which includes pretty much every animal from worms to humans. Bilateral animals also have recognizable body sections that help us tell the head end, from the torso to the tail end, but with radial, not bilateral symmetry, Echinoderms don’t, and that made them difficult to fathom until now. Which bit of a Starfish’s body was which? An international team of scientists wanted to find out.

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