Science Daily — The human parathyroid gland, which regulates the level of calcium in the blood, probably evolved from the gills of fish, according to researchers from King's College London.
Writing in the latest edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Professor Anthony Graham and Dr Masataka Okabe suggest that the gills of ancestral marine creatures, which were used to regulate calcium levels, were internalised rather than lost when land-living, four-limbed animals the tetrapods evolved.
Many physiological processes such as muscle contraction, blood coagulation and signalling by nerve cells, require specific levels of calcium in the body. In humans, calcium levels are regulated by the parathyroid gland, which secretes parathyroid hormone if the calcium concentration in the blood falls too low. This hormone then causes the release of calcium from bone, and increases its reuptake in the kidney, raising the calcium levels back to normal.
Fish don't have parathyroid glands. Instead they increase their internal calcium concentration by using their gills to take up calcium from the surrounding water.
'As the tetrapod parathyroid gland and the gills of fish both contribute to the regulation of extracellular calcium levels, it is reasonable to suggest that the parathyroid gland evolved from a transformation of the gills when animals made the transition from the aquatic to the terrestrial environment,' said Professor Graham.
'This interpretation would also explain why the parathyroid gland is positioned in the neck. If the gland had emerged from scratch when tetrapods evolved it could, as an endocrine organ, have been placed anywhere in the body and still exert its effect.'
The researchers supported their theory by carrying out experiments that show that the parathyroid glands of mice and chickens and the gills of zebrafish and dogfish contain many similarities.
Both gills and parathyroid gland develop from the same type of tissue in the embryo, called the pharyngeal pouch endoderm; both structures express a gene called Gcm-2, and both need this gene to develop correctly.
Furthermore, the researchers found a gene for parathyroid hormone in fish, and they discovered that this gene is expressed in the gills.
'The parathyroid gland and the gills of fish are related structures and likely share a common evolutionary history,' said Professor Graham. 'Our work will have great resonance to all those people who have seen Haeckels' pictures, which show that we all go through a fish stage in our development. This new research suggests that in fact, our gills are still sitting in our throats disguised as our parathyroid glands.'
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by King's College London.
Darwin, Marx and Bad Scholarship
To suggest that I changed your mind against evolution confirms one thing; you are the stupidest person ever. The strength of evolution does not rest on what I or some one else writes about it, it is about evidence. You may have supported evolution, but you never understood it and now that you are in the wrong side of the debate your ignorance about it continues.
Your dim-witted claim that evolution concentrates on religion is patently false. You could scan nearly every research paper written on the subject, you will never find religion mentioned. Paleontologists describing a new discover don’t talk about Jesus, molecular biologists examining base alignments never mention god. It is only in your demented mind that this connection is made. You almost got it right. Only a child who has never learned to think rationally, only a child who believes in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy and Monsters in the closet could make such connection. An adult who is well informed and can think rationally would never do so.
Your lies and malicious accusations won’t change the fact that you are wrong; just as you were wrong about Hegel, Marx and Darwin. In 7 point form lines I proved that you didn’t know what you were talking about. Hegel was anti-evolution you pathetic dolt, his philosophy was anti-Darwinian. Marx was already explained to you, though it seems you refused to read any information that proves you the fool, and evolution is not atheistic.
Evolution is no more atheistic than running, tennis, plumbing or gardening. None of those pursuits require the inclusion of God; and just as floor tiling does not require god, neither does it rule one out. It is the same for evolution.
Do you begin to see a pattern?
The “evolution is atheist” is one of the stupidest claims ever and only made by the dullest most uninformed of people. People just like you.
Your continual comparison of science to evolution is another sign of your stupidity as are the claims that science is dogmatic. You are free to come up with the many possible ways which could disprove evolution, I given examples in which it could be done, and many other examples are publicly available. There has never been a culture that has been destroyed by education; in every historical example education elevates the ethical standing of a culture. The opposite is also true; every culture that has suppressed science and education has eventually failed. You are so dumb, if you are going to make up lies at least make them so they are not so easy to refute.
It also does not matter if evolution is being used to promote a particular “ism” you despise. This in no way renders evolution false. And again Hegel was anti-evolution and Marx…. Well I sense the explanation would be lost on someone like you. Communism and Marxism is ardently anti-Darwinian, it was so in CCCP,
You foolishly blame science for what you perceive is evil, a hypocritical opinion from a supporter of guns. You do not blame guns or knives or baseball bats for violence. The intelligent person recognizes that it is the person that commits the evil, not the item. It is the same with science; if it has been misused then this is the person. It is not the fault of science any more than the Wright Brothers are responsible for 9/11. It is a simple minded notion, one that could be cured by education. Unfortunately you refuse to be educated. The defense against those who would use science for nefarious purposes is a science literate society.
All science is good science, just as all knowledge is good knowledge. Biblical story tell us that knowledge is bad, you have taken that message to heart and far more seriously than any I’ve come across.
You have made a religion out of ignorance and as the most ignorant of them all you are the high priest.