Rare deep-sea starfish stuck in juvenile body plan
Monday, May 2, 2011 - 12:30
in Biology & Nature
Scientists have combined embryological observations, genetic sequencing, and supercomputing to determine that small disk-shaped animals that once were thought to represent a new class of animals are actually starfish that have lost the large star-shaped, adult body from their life cycle. A computational biologists used a supercomputer to help support his contention that class-level status of Xyloplax does not reflect their evolutionary history.