An important discovery has changed scientists ideas about the evolution

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Важное открытие ученых изменило представления об эволюции Scientists have come to unexpected conclusions, using genetic analysis.

Full limbs came from an ancient fish even before they came on to land. To such conclusion came American scientists; their work was published in the journal Cell.

According to the conventional on the moment theory, first fish left the ocean in the late Devonian period, about 370 million years ago and gradually began to settle on land. Approximately 20-30 million years in the course of evolution appeared the first amphibians creatures.

Until now it was thought that limb progenitor of the feet – there are these creatures after they were on land. New studies show, however, that the limb could exist in the ancestors of fish for another 420 million years ago. In their work, scientists examined the anatomy and genetic program development tight stingrays are one of the most ancient fish that has survived until now and relatively slightly evolved.

Their fins are in structure more like primitive legs of terrestrial beings than the traditional fish of the limb. To make sure that these are common features in fish and land animals was inherited from a common ancestor and not acquired as a result of convergent evolution, the researchers compared the activity of neurons that control movement of the limbs and the genes responsible for their development, have a tight grip on slopes and mice.

The tests showed that the front paws of the mouse and the fins rays are controlled by the same sets of nerve cells and their development responds to a similar set of genes. These results indicate that the slopes and mice have a common ancestor, which was full of limbs. “The genetic program that controls the movement centers in the spinal cord, appeared much earlier than we thought.

Vertebrates are very similar to each other – we all use schemes that appeared more than 400 million years ago. It radically changes our understanding of the evolution,” said one of the study’s authors.

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