But it lacked fingers, and still had a short fringe of fin rays. “But we didn’t have the means to do it until technology caught up with our aspirations,” Dr. Shubin said. Zebrafish with defective copies of both Hox genes grew deformed fins, the scientists found. Mr. Gehrke observed that a cluster of cells started making the Hox proteins early in the development of fish fins. The new discovery could help make sense of the intermediate fish with limb-like fins that Dr. Shubin and his colleagues have unearthed.

Source: New York Times August 17, 2016 17:00 UTC