Re: Anyone care to explain this?

I think you may have seen the word evolution and gotten excited too early. This is an example of apoptosis due to transcription factors. It's just like if you removed or disabled testicular tissue in a male human embryo before at a certain stage of development. The presence of early testicular tissue (as told to develop by the Y chromosome) normally leads to secretion of anti-mullerian hormone which tells the female reproductive tract that's starting to form to stop and regress. No anti-mullerian hormone would result in the formation of female reproductive tract. The kid would be XY but would have fallopian tubes and the like. A lot of organogenesis in animals is due to something devloping and it secreting something that leads to the formation of something else. In the absence of certain transcription factors, regression and apoptosis occurs. The article didn't say anything about transfer of this trait to future generations. It also said that the presence of the eye doesn't necessarily mean functionality. If you manipulated development of the human embryo at a certain time you could have a baby with webbed hands and feet and a tail. Pretty interesting research though.