A large genetic study of the extinct woolly mammoth has revealed that the species was not one large homogenous group, as scientists previously had assumed, and that it did not have much genetic diversity. “The population was split into two groups, then one of the groups died out 45,000 years ago, long before the first humans began to appear in the region,” said Stephan C. Schuster, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State and a leader of the research team. “This discovery is particularly interesting because it …

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Studies have identified important genes that direct embryonic development. Specific developmental regulators help define larger body regions, such as heads and tails or the left and right sides of the body. David M. Kingsley explains how many key developmental genes are conserved among animals that look very different.

Evolution is supposed to inch forward over eons, but sometimes, at least in the case of a little fish called the threespine stickleback, the process can go in relative warp-speed reverse, according to a study led by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and published online ahead of print in the May 20 issue of Current Biology
“There are not many documented examples of reverse evolution in nature,” said senior author Catherine “Katie” Peichel, Ph.D., “but perhaps that’s just because people haven’t really looked.”

In a new paper published this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology, authors Filippo Rijli and colleagues demonstrate that pontine neuron migration in mice is controlled by specific Hox genes. They show that by knocking out the expression of the Hoxa2 gene the path of the neurons changes, causing them to end up in the wrong part of the brain.
Pontine neurons are generated in the rear part of the brain and ultimately end up in the cerebellum, a region in the brain responsible for coordinating the senses and motor …

Pleurobrachia pileus – Sea gooseberry

Originally uploaded by zan milligan

Organisms of phyla Ctenophora failed to generate considerable interest in evo devo in spite of displaying remarkable features which pose important questions in evo devo .These features are outlined below:
1) Well developed nerve net,Gut with openings on two sides( only bilaterians have fully formed gut with two openings in mouth and anus) 3) Some parts show bilateral symmetry 4) the most interesting properties of ctenophores is their true triploblastic condition (But the mesoderm of ctenophores may not be homologous to the ones …

At first glance it looks like a slug worm but don’t be surprised it belongs to the same super phyla Deuterostomia, which also includes human beings .Deuterostomes can be classified into four
* Phylum Chordata (vertebrates and Urochoradata,e.g. Ascidians,Cephalaochordata e.g.Amphioxus)
* Phylum Echinodermata (starfishes, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, etc.)
* Phylum Hemichordata (acorn worms and possibly graptolites)
* Phylum Xenoturbellida (2 species of worm-like animals)
Xenoturbella was first thought to be a relative of bivalve molluscs, such as mussels …

sea pen
Originally uploaded by c0lin_bates

Sea pens are colonial marine cnidarians belonging to the order Pennatulacea. There are 14 families within the order; they are thought to have a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical and temperate waters worldwide. Sea pens are grouped with the octocorals (”soft corals”), together with sea whips and sea feathers.
sea pens are composed of physiologic structures called polyps (which look somewhat like miniature sea anemones), each with eight tentacles.sea pen’s polyps are specialized to specific functions: a single polyp develops into a rigid, erect stalk and loses its …