New information about molecular mechanisms of development can be combined with existing knowledge about embryology, anatomy and paleontology to allow for an increased understanding of evolutionary ...

A new study gives insight into how limb development evolved in vertebrates. The findings identify a gene that plays a central role in the evolution of limb development in vertebrates. By manipulating ...

Human fingers and toes do not grow outward; instead, they form from within a larger foundational bud, as intervening cells recede to reveal the digits beneath. This is among many processes captured ...

This study is reported by Jia-Tang Li’s group from the Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The development of limbs is significant for the origin and evolution of tetrapods, ...

The choreographed movements that cells perform to form complex biological shapes, like our hands, have fascinated scientists for centuries. Now, researchers at EMBL Barcelona have launched LimbNET, an ...

Scientists have created a spatial atlas of the incredible process of human limb development, including steps that show digits emerging from a bud as cells recede, instead of growing outward. With ...

During early development, the embryo builds the body's organs by exchanging chemical signals between different cell types. When developing limbs, a thin band of skin cells at the limb’s surface, ...

The ancestors of today’s slithery snakes once sported full-fledged arms and legs, but genetic mutations caused the reptiles to lose all four of their limbs about 150 million years ago, according to ...

Snakes used to wander the Earth on legs about 150 million years ago, before they shifted from strut to slither. Now, two scientists have pinpointed the genetic process that caused snakes to lose their ...