Our understanding of vertebrate origins is powerfully informed by comparative morphology,
embryology and genomics of chordates, hemichordates and echinoderms, which together …

The study of the evolutionary origin of vertebrates has been linked to the study of genome
duplications since Susumo Ohno suggested that the successful diversification of vertebrate …

Acorn worms, also known as enteropneust (literally,'gut-breathing') hemichordates, are
marine invertebrates that share features with echinoderms and chordates. Together, these …

Echinoderms are an exceptional group of bilaterians that develop pentameral adult
symmetry from a bilaterally symmetric larva. However, the genetic basis in evolution and …

Hox genes, with their similar roles in animals as evolutionarily distant as humans and flies,
have fascinated biologists since their discovery nearly 30 years ago. During the last two …

One of the major regulatory challenges of animal development is to precisely coordinate in
space and time the formation, specification, and patterning of cells that underlie elaboration …

The discovery of Hox gene clusters, first in Drosophila (a protostome) and then as
homologues in vertebrates (deuterostomes), was a major step in our understanding of both …

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the discovery by Ed Lewis of the property of
collinearity in the bithorax gene complex in Drosophila. This landmark work illustrated the …

Species within nearly all extant animal lineages are capable of regenerating body parts.
However, it remains unclear whether the gene expression programme controlling …

Our understanding of vertebrate origins and the backbone of human history evolves with
each new fossil find and DNA map. Many species have now had their genomes sequenced …