Human Limbs Evolved From Shark Fins Thanks To Sonic Hedgehog Gene (mirror.co.uk)

An anonymous reader shares a report at Mirror: Scientists believe human limbs evolved from the gills of sharks -- thanks to a gene named after Sonic the Hedgehog. The discovery comes from analysis of skate, a cartilaginous fish which has much in common with sharks. Limbs, like gills, grow thanks to a vital protein known as the 'Sonic hedgehog gene' -- named after the video game character. The new discovery backs up a theory suggested 138 years ago that legs and arms evolved from prehistoric fish gills. Gizmodo has more details on this.

Comments

a vital protein known as the 'Sonic hedgehog gene'

[phishybongwaters]

FFS. Just no. NO.

Bony fish did not evolve from sharks

[jfdavis668]

Bony fish and their decedents, including tetrapods, did not evolve from sharks, but a common ancestor of both.

Re:Bony fish did not evolve from sharks

[Tough Love]

"evolved from SHARK fins" is a journalistic invention from mirror.co and is not the fault of the cited article, which says "evolved from the transformation of gill arches in early fish", clearly including common ancestors. It is perfectly plausible that the same gene may have descended in recognizable form down these not very widely separated branches of the evolutionary tree, that is certainly true of many other genes. What other means do we have to learn something about genes of the vanished common parent, other than studying the similarities and differences of current expression and function of recognizable descendents in dissimilar species?

Anyway, the research is about gills, not fins, so that is another journalistic crime from mirror.co. It would have been more honest to run a headline along the lines that shark gills and human hands are essentially the same, but then would anybody read it?

Re:Bony fish did not evolve from sharks

[serviscope_minor]

That's because it's sonic hedgehog, not sonic THE hedgehog.

Many references:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Title doesn't reflect article

[Big_Oh]

RTFA: from gills, not from fins.

Re:Title doesn't reflect article

[jimbolauski]

This is the trifecta of bad /. submissions, the title contradicts the summary and/or article, a least one link in the summary is to a click bait site, and the summary has factual errors.

Re:Title doesn't reflect article

[srmalloy]

The mirror.co.uk article does say "shark fins" in the title, so the poster was just knee-jerking TFA. The Gizmodo article is more rational on the subject; the article on mirror.co.uk is crammed full of sensationalism, like the "scientists believe" phrase at the start of the post, which implies that it's a widely- or universally-held belief, while the Gizmodo article states "Now scientists at the University of Cambridge have performed experiments on the embryos of skates that point to a possible evolutionary connection between the gills of those fish and our limbs." The mirror.co.uk article gets well down in the article before it actually quotes the principle researcher saying that "taken to an extreme" this indicates that gills and limbs share genetic programming, but that this is not yet proven, and they can't say for certain because of gaps in the fossil record. But rational, measured articles don't have the flash of waving a possible connection around as a foregone conclusion.

Laser Implants

[Lead Butthead]

So we should all start looking into getting laser implants?

Re:a vital protein known as the 'Sonic hedgehog ge

[Carewolf]

FFS. Just no. NO.

At least this discovery wasn't made aboard the research vessel Boaty McBoatFace.

Re:138 Years Ago

[jfdavis668]

I remember back when I was little, and people were first crawling out of the swamps onto land. Never thought it would last.

Circle of Life

[paiute]

Shark evolves gills.
Gills evolve into arms.
Arms evolve into man.
Man invents laser.
Shark gets laser on head.

Re:a vital protein known as the 'Sonic hedgehog ge

[serviscope_minor]

FFS. Just no. NO.

Yep!

Someone discovered a gene and called it "hedgehog" because it made fly larvae look like mini hedgehogs. Then someone discovered another variety and the form X hedgehog was born. Then someone who grew up in the 80s found a variety and thought it would be a good wheeze to make X=Sonic.

Re:No They Didn't.

[zenlessyank]

That's what I said. But the Carpenters wouldn't have anything to do with it. Go figure.

Thanks To Sonic The Hedgehog Game

[snowsmann]

Did anyone else read that as "Human Limbs Evolved From Shark Fins Thanks To Sonic The Hedgehog Game" at first? I was trying to figure out how playing the Sega game would change shark fins into human limbs...

Bad summary

[Geoffrey.landis]

A very bad summary. That's what they get for using the Daily Mirror as if anything they published were actually science journalism.

The proposed evolution is from gills, not from fins. And even here, it's the gill arch: not the gills, but the cartilage supporting the gills

Sharks have nothing to do with it-- the fish in question are skates, not sharks, and even here, they aren't proposing that limbs evolved from skate gill arches, but from the gill arches of proto-fishes who were ancestral to both.

Re:138 years ago?

[SeaFox]

The theory is what was suggested 138 years ago. It wasn't suggested the evolutionary change itself occurred then.
Don't worry. I had to read that part twice, too.

Jesus, try being a bit wronger, why don't you?

[wonkey_monkey]

Human Limbs Evolved From Shark Fins

Scientists believe human limbs evolved from the gills of sharks

Fins, gills, same thing right?

Second thing: we're not descended from sharks.

Re:a vital protein known as the 'Sonic hedgehog ge

[OakDragon]

You're just jealous because you didn't get to name it the Q*bert gene.

@!#?@!