Jellyfish is anatomically sophisticated
21 June 2005
A U.S. study says the anus-less, headless,
heartless, gutless, back or front-less jellyfish is
really a remarkable genetically sophisticated
creature.
Scientists at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.,
say beneath the seemingly simple exterior of the
jellyfish and its relatives, known as cnidarians, lies
an amazing collection of genes including many that
give rise to humans' complex anatomy, The New
York Times reported Tuesday.
Lead researcher, Kevin J. Peterson, a Dartmouth
biologist, said, "This data have made a lot of
people step back and realize that a lot of what they
had thought about cnidarians was all wrong."
Cnidarians developed with their body parts growing
from two primordial layers of tissue. Other animals,
including humans, have a third layer of embryonic
tissue which gives rise to muscles, the heart and
other organs not found in cnidarians, the Times
reported.
In a paper to be published in the journal
Paleobiology, Peterson and his colleagues
propose that once water began to fill with animals,
the earliest cnidarians anchored themselves to the
sea floor and grew upward.
In the process, they abandoned the body plan of
their ancestors, the Times reported. Around the
same time, cnidarians evolved their weaponry -- a
cell containing a miniature harpoon for paralyzing
prey with toxins.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International
APA citation: Jellyfish is anatomically sophisticated (2005, June 21) retrieved 14 June 2017 from
https://phys.org/news/2005-06-jellyfish-anatomically-sophisticated.html
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