Laurent Formery, a biologist from Stanford University, published the results of a study of sea stars, which poses a new mystery for scientists. Most living things on planet Earth have bilateral symmetry, and at the larval stage sea stars in this respect do not differ from other animals. But then, for unknown reasons, they take the form of radial symmetry, growing what people mistakenly call “legs” or “rays”.
RNA tomography works wonders, for example, it can be used to trace which genes take part in the creation and development of certain parts of a living creature’s body. In the case of starfish, it turns out that their entire body has genes for “head”. In other words, these creatures have no body, per se. All we see is a very strange sprawling head, which has also for some reason split into several offshoots.
