534-536: Cnidaria

A nice piece in the New York Times about the evolution of cnidaria (hydra, jellyfish, anemones, etc). Research on their developmental genetics shows that the same genetic architecture that operates almost identically from mammals to flies is also at work in the cnidarians. Understanding their development and their phylogeny lets us see when they branched off as a unique group. By learning about the evolution of jellyfish, we learn about the evolution of all of life.