Ancient tool kit

----------------------------
A new theory traces animal forms to an 'ancient tool kit'
By Lori Valigra


For those who want to enhance their sense of kinship with butterflies, zebras,
apes, and even ancient dinosaurs, Sean B. Carroll offers a treasure trove in
"Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo."


Evo Devo, evolutionary developmental biology, intertwines Earth's family of
animals in a way not done in the past: Its most surprising finding is that all
animals, including those with arms, wings, or fins, originated from a small
number of primitive "master" genes.


Over long spans of time, that "ancient tool kit" of genes evolved animals and
created the enormous diversity around us: stripes in zebras, spectacularly
colored butterfly wings, and intricate human hands. One ancient gene led to the
creation of eyes across the entire animal kingdom, writes Carroll, a genetics
professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.


Evo Devo is the third revolution in the field known as evolutionary biology or
how animals were made and evolved.
-----------------------------


CS Monitor