You Are An Upside-Down Lobster

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Here's why you aren't built like a lobster.
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Our bodies are mirror images of lobsters and other arthropods from back to belly. We've know since the early 19th century that our guts and nervous systems are inverted from theirs, but only recently has molecular biology shown us why. Here's the evolutionary tale about a worm doing the backstroke and why your guts are on your front.

This is part 2 of 3 in my series about how our bodies evolved to look like they do. Check out the others:
Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdNE4WygyAk
Part 3 - Coming Friday!

More info:

Dorsoventral inversion: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inversion_(evolutionary_biology)

Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tienne_Geoffroy_Saint-Hilaire

Common animal body plan between protostomes and deuterostomes: http://www.hhmi.ucla.edu/derobertis/EDR_MS/Evo-Devo_page/EVO-DEVO.html

How we know that our body plan came later: http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2006/01/12/hemichordate-evodevo/

Step by step along the evolutionary tree:
http://tolweb.org/Bilateria/2459
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilateria
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuterostome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protostome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urochordata
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chordate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cephalochordata
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craniate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GnathostomataEvolutionary timeline of vertebrates: http://www.utexas.edu/news/2008/03/03/tree/

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Joe Hanson - Host and writer
Joe Nicolosi - Director
Amanda Fox - Producer, Spotzen Inc.
Kate Eads - Associate Producer
Katie Graham - Director of Photography
Andrew Matthews - Editor and motion graphics
John Knudsen - Gaffer


Music:
"Ouroboros" by Kevin MacLeod

Stock images via Shutterstock

Produced by PBS Digital Studios: http://www.youtube.com/user/pbsdigitalstudios

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Last week's video: Why Did We Blow on NES Games? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gf9mtXnJfM


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