My cousin slimey - the (very common) origins of the human brain

June 30, 2007 Say hello to your long lost cousin, the marine ragworm Platynereis dumerilii. Yes folks, if the thought of “good breeding” appeals to you, we have some humbling news. European researchers have found strong evidence the hypothalamus and other hormone-secreting brain centres are much older than previously believed and probably evolved from multifunctional cells of the last common ancestor of vertebrates, flies and worms. Hormones control growth, metabolism, reproduction and other biological processes and in all vertebrates (humans included), these chemical signals are produced by specialised brain centres such as the hypothalamus and distributed around the body via the blood stream. Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory [EMBL] have now found that the evolutionary basis of these advanced brain centres were multifunctional neurons that sensed the environment and released hormones accordingly – so next time you swat that fly …

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