'It has absolutely changed the way that I think about this group of animals,' evolution expert said.
Imagine you are drawing a starfish—where would you draw its face?Starfish have eyes at the tip of each of their arms, but the location of their heads has puzzled scientists for decades.'Understanding how the bodies of echinoderms relate to those of other animal groups has been a long-standing question without a clear answer for about as long as people have been studying these animals,' said Jeff Thompson, a lecturer and evolution expert at the U.K.'s University of Southampton.
The researchers also used micro-CT scanning technology to understand the animal's shape and structure in never seen before detail.'When we compared the expression of genes in a starfish to other groups of animals, like vertebrates, it appeared that a crucial part of the body plan was missing,' Thompson said. 'The genes that are typically involved in the patterning of the trunk of the animal weren't expressed in the ectoderm.
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