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Evolutionary biology

Body plans and simple brains

Nature volume 424, pages 263–264 (2003)Cite this article

Genes expressed in the vertebrate brain and spinal cord show up in the surface nerve net of a closely related group of invertebrates. Could this mean that brains started out on the body surface?

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Figure 1: Protostomes and deuterostomes.
Figure 2: Saccoglossus embryo showing expression patterns for two of the 22 genes examined by Lowe et al.1.

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  1. Department of Biology, University of Victoria, Victoria, V8W 3N5, British Columbia, Canada

    Thurston Lacalli

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  1. Thurston Lacalli
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Lacalli, T. Body plans and simple brains. Nature 424, 263–264 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/424263a

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