SKIRMISHER

When the obscure, worm-like creature called Xenoturbella was genetically analyzed, scientists realized they were looking at a new phylum. Not only that, the brainless worm explains the existence of people like [insert name of your favorite major buffoon here].

Perhaps more significant, the analysis of Xenoturbella seems to confirm that human beings and other chordates share a common ancestor, a first in science. Its extreme characteristics suggest that this common ancestor – one the creature shares with its sister phyla, echinoderms and hemichordates, as well as chordates — did not have a brain or central nervous system.

“It is a basal organism, which by chance preserved the basal characteristics present in our common ancestor,” Moroz said. “This shows that our common ancestor doesn’t have a brain but rather a diffuse neural system in the animal’s surface.”

via PHYSORG

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