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After centuries of mystery, scientists have finally unraveled the puzzle of the location of a starfishs head.
Its not at all what scientists have assumed about these animals, he added.
In contrast, sea stars unique five-fold radial symmetry posed a different challenge in locating corresponding features.
Observing a sea star, Laurent remarked: There is nothing that looks like your head.
You just have no idea.
Laurent and his colleagues delved into these genetic similarities.
However, as the researcher informed Insider, their exploration was made possible through the assistance of modern technology.
Laurent explained: For a very long time, we just had access to anatomy and morphology.
And theyre not very helpful when you look at a sea star.
And recently, we can kind of ignore the morphology and just focus on the molecular aspects of development.
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.
Hestatedthat the entire body plan of a starfish is roughly equivalent to the head in other animal groups.
The revelation was very weird and took Laurent by surprise.
Nobody really had [this] envisioned before we had access to this data, Laurent admitted.
And is it a brain?
Is it just a brain, basically?
Science fans were amazed at the recent discovery
