Biomineralized skeletons are widespread in animals, and their origins can be traced to the
latest Ediacaran or early Cambrian fossil record, in virtually all animal groups. The origin of …

Deuterostomes are the major division of animal life which includes sea stars, acorn worms,
and humans, among a wide variety of ecologically and morphologically disparate taxa …

Biologically induced and controlled mineralization of metals promotes the development of
protective structures to shield cells from thermal, chemical, and ultraviolet stresses. Metal …

Hagfish depart so much from other fishes anatomically that they were sometimes considered
not fully vertebrate. They may represent:(i) an anatomically primitive outgroup of vertebrates …

Echinoderms are a major group (phylum) of invertebrate animals with a rich fossil record
stretching back to the Cambrian period, approximately 518 million years ago. While all …

Sea star wasting—marked in a variety of sea star species as varying degrees of skin lesions
followed by disintegration—recently caused one of the largest marine die-offs ever recorded …

Echinoderms are a major group of invertebrate deuterostomes that have been an important
component of marine ecosystems throughout the P hanerozoic. Their fossil record extends …

The skeletogenic gene regulatory network (GRN) of sea urchins and other echinoderms is
one of the most intensively studied transcriptional networks in any developing organism. As …

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 …

Members of the alx gene family encode transcription factors that contain a highly conserved
Paired-class, DNA-binding homeodomain, and a C-terminal OAR/Aristaless domain …