Monday, July 18, 2011

1583 - Philtrum

Hey there fish face. Who? YOU! And me. We all had a fish face at one time. Here's an article ..... What? The philtrum? Hold on! .... about how our faces, all faces, evolved from fish faces.

The early human embryo looks very similar to the embryo of any other mammal, bird or amphibian - all of which have evolved from fish.

So you wind up with a philtrum which is left over from making your face. Is it a defect? Nope, just a left over. But if it doesn't develop correctly it can be a big defect. Think cleft palate.

What else? Gonads.

Like the shark our gonads also start life high up, near the liver. But unlike the shark they need to descend.

Makes you want to read more right? And what could be more exciting than gonads? Hic..cups!

In fish the nerves that activate breathing take a short journey from an ancient part of the brain, the brain stem, to the throat and gills. In us, it is more complicated.

So now you really want to read THE WHOLE THING. Actually it's not that long. But there are links! There are always links!

And there is a cool 30 second animation of the formation of the face.

 

5 comments:

Amanda said...

That video is amazing. I expected it to gradually look more like a human face but that sort of happened in a burst right at the end. Interesting stuff.

lacochran's evil twin said...

Fish face!

Mike said...

A - You can see other creatures' faces as the human face develops.

LET - Who knew?!

Margaret (Peggy or Peg too) said...

that was a cool video.
I watched it several times - each time noticing something else.

When I was 16 we nicknamed this girl fish face because she looked like the fish in the movie The Incredible Mr. Limpit (I know I'm old)I guess we weren't as far off as we may have thought.

Mike said...

M - I'm sure that girl loves you to this day.