Evolution Of Fins And Limbs Linked With That Of Gills

Tuesday, March 24, 2009 - 20:21 in Biology & Nature

The genetic toolkit animals use to build fins and limbs is the same one that controls the development of part of the gill skeleton in sharks. Also, the skeleton of any animal appendage is probably patterned by the developmental genetic program that regulates the formation of shark gills. This finding is consistent with an old theory, often discounted in textbooks, that fins and (later) limbs evolved from the gills of an extinct vertebrate.

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