Coelacanths are an ancient group of lobe-finned fish (Sarcopterygii) in the class Actinistia. As sarcopterygians, they are more closely related to lungfish and tetrapods (the terrestrial vertebrates including living amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals) than to ray-finned fish. The name coelacanth originates from the Permian genus Coelacanthus, which was the first scientifically named genus of coelacanths (in 1839), becoming the type genus of Coelacanthiformes as other species were discovered and named. Well-represented in freshwater and marine deposits from as early as the Devonian period (more…
Today we celebrate the publication of the human genome with an image of the super helix. On 15th February 2001 researchers published the first sequence-based map of large-scale structural variation across the human genome in the journal Nature. Large-scale structural variations are differences in the genome among people that range from a few thousand…