Leggy beetles show how insects lost limbs

October 21, 2002 at 3:22 pm - More than 2 years ago

A beetle larva with a chorus line of legs is spotlighting the evolutionary steps that insects took to get from multilimbed centipedes to the six-legged specimens common today.

When scientists inactivate two genes in the red flour beetle, the normally six-legged larvae (top) sprout legs on all their abdominal segments (bottom). Bennett

Evolving from millipede to beetle is a genetic two-step, say biologist Randy L.

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