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)
Pop-upView Separately

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)

575 Notes/ Hide

  1. evodevobio reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  2. sirolor reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  3. philipjcurlyfries reblogged this from scientificillustration
  4. intergalactic-intellectual reblogged this from howstuffworks
  5. scorpshirl reblogged this from scholasticendeavors
  6. greythegryphon reblogged this from thewhitewarg
  7. f8cr reblogged this from infinity-imagined
  8. sva-om-shanti reblogged this from foxxy-lady
  9. alanhartman reblogged this from maconsolomon
  10. maconsolomon reblogged this from urielholcomb
  11. urielholcomb reblogged this from hardingjensen
  12. hardingjensen reblogged this from wandahurst
  13. wandahurst reblogged this from jadarobertsa
  14. jadarobertsa reblogged this from justinrogerss
  15. justinrogerss reblogged this from infinity-imagined
  16. thewaronindifference reblogged this from queennubian
  17. phiom reblogged this from infinity-imagined
  18. kleinen-gelben-vogel reblogged this from infinity-imagined
  19. virgingerroot reblogged this from queennubian and added:
    scientific figures can be very satisfying
  20. necroangel reblogged this from infinity-imagined
  21. bollodearroz reblogged this from infinity-imagined
  22. demonwarz reblogged this from infinity-imagined
  23. vinylscars reblogged this from infinity-imagined
  24. queennubian reblogged this from loveisthewateroflife
  25. loveisthewateroflife reblogged this from infinity-imagined
  26. fruitblast reblogged this from infinity-imagined
  27. brianpoozer reblogged this from infinity-imagined
  28. evolutionoverdose reblogged this from infinity-imagined

Recent comments

Blog comments powered by Disqus