Clues To Ancestral Origin Of Placenta Emerge In Genetics Study

By PvM

While ID proponents have spent much time on a ‘documentary’ which misrepresents science, the scientific community and fails to present any scientifically relevant explanations related to the concept of Intelligent Design, real scientists have been working hard to unravel another mystery: the origin and evolution of the placenta

In a paper titled Genomic evolution of the placenta using co-option and duplication and divergence researchers Kirstin Knox and Julie C. Baker (soon to be published in Genome Research) describe how they have started to unravel the mystery of the placenta

The invention of the placenta facilitated the evolution of mammals. How the placenta evolved from the simple structure observed in birds and reptiles into the complex organ that sustains human life is one of the great mysteries of evolution. By using a timecourse microarray analysis including the entire lifetime of the placenta, we uncover molecular and genomic changes that underlie placentation and find that two distinct evolutionary mechanisms were utilized during placental evolution in mice and human. Ancient genes involved in growth and metabolism were co-opted for use during early embryogenesis, likely enabling the accelerated development of extraembryonic tissues. Recently duplicated genes are utilized at later stages of placentation to meet the metabolic needs of a diverse range of pregnancy physiologies. Together, these mechanisms served to develop the specialized placenta, a novel structure that led to expansion of the eutherian mammal, including humankind.

In Clues To Ancestral Origin Of Placenta Emerge In Genetics Study” ScienceDaily describes the relevance of these findings:

The evidence suggests the placenta of humans and other mammals evolved from the much simpler tissue that attached to the inside of eggshells and enabled the embryos of our distant ancestors, the birds and reptiles, to get oxygen.

Remind me again, how does ID explain the origin/evolution of the placenta?

Sigh…