Comment by mollwollfumble. It looks like starfish and daleks have something in common.
Scientists Resolve Centuries-Old Mystery And Finally Find Starfish’s Head
Genetic studies suggest that the fascinating creatures have a head in each limb.
It’s as if the sea star is completely missing a trunk, and is best described as just a head crawling along the seafloor.
the presence of bilateral symmetry in other animals facilitated the identification of the head, trunk, limbs, and similar structures.
In contrast, sea stars’ unique five-fold radial symmetry posed a different challenge in locating corresponding feature, there is nothing that looks like your head.
Animals follow a genetic code that unfolds and triggers various regions during development, determining the placement of limbs, heads, and other features.
Recently, we can kind of ignore the morphology and just focus on the molecular aspects of development.
The scientists scrutinized the distinct genes within individual starfish limbs.
Initially, they anticipated discovering genes resembling a head and others resembling a trunk, akin to most animals.
However, their findings primarily consisted of genes with head-like characteristics.
The genes commonly linked to the trunk of an animal were notably absent in starfish.
The entire body plan of a starfish is roughly equivalent to the head in other animal groups.
Scientists plan to further examine starfish to ascertain whether they might have multiple brains.