jtotheizzoe: Every Embryo In the neighborhood of 600 million years ago, the embryos of the animal kingdom branched into several distinct arms based on how that little ball of cells that’s created after fertilization begins to pattern and fold itself into what will one day become a fully grown adult.  Think about this: If you go far enough back in evolution, the common ancestors of all of these various families of organisms, from vertebrates to insects to sea slugs, had the same set of genes to call upon in order to make a three-dimensional animal. Very quickly, and quite beautifully, the diversity of life’s forms exploded.  Much of the amazing variety you see among animals today begins with the patterns laid down in the earliest stages of development, and this represents the crossroads where they all began their journey to the modern age.  (From Wired’s Best Scientific Figures of 2012)

jtotheizzoe:

Every Embryo

In the neighborhood of 600 million years ago, the embryos of the animal kingdom branched into several distinct arms based on how that little ball of cells that’s created after fertilization begins to pattern and fold itself into what will one day become a fully grown adult. 

Think about this: If you go far enough back in evolution, the common ancestors of all of these various families of organisms, from vertebrates to insects to sea slugs, had the same set of genes to call upon in order to make a three-dimensional animal. Very quickly, and quite beautifully, the diversity of life’s forms exploded. 

Much of the amazing variety you see among animals today begins with the patterns laid down in the earliest stages of development, and this represents the crossroads where they all began their journey to the modern age. 

(From Wired’s Best Scientific Figures of 2012)

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