How Rays & Skates Got Their Wings

Molecular mechanisms underlying the exceptional adaptations of batoid fins. 2015. PNAS

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The evolution of the striking, wing-like pectoral fins of skates and rays relied on repurposed genes. Studying embryonic skates, they discovered that the rear portion of the fin is built by typical limb-development genes; but the front portion develops through a different set of genes that are usually found in the shoulder areas of other species.

Read more at Phys. Org.