Sunday, June 29, 2025

Before bilateral symmetry

h/t Reynolds: chordin. [The article has a clickbait title to be ignored.]

For us animal eukaryotes, placozoa branched away first. Then, within the Knid branch, we learn that anemones branched off. We of bilateral-symmetry (worms, chordates, bugs, fish) share "chordin" with anemones. So bilateral-symmetry happened sometime in that Vendian-now-Ediacaran period.

For bilaterans, chordin "shuttles" Bone Morphogenetic Protein around. It's not just bone; this protein ensures cells build up organs wherever they need to. Anemones lack BMP but have other proteins for their own organs.

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