500-million-year-old fossil reveals how starfish got their shape

A 500-million-year-old fossil from Morocco, discovered by Natural History Museum scientists, is offering extraordinary new insights into one of evolution's most puzzling transformations: how echinoderms, the group that includes starfish, sea cucumbers and sea urchins, evolved from ancestors that showed bilateral symmetry, like humans, to the unique fivefold symmetry we see today.

Jun 26, 2025 - 12:10
 0
A 500-million-year-old fossil from Morocco, discovered by Natural History Museum scientists, is offering extraordinary new insights into one of evolution's most puzzling transformations: how echinoderms, the group that includes starfish, sea cucumbers and sea urchins, evolved from ancestors that showed bilateral symmetry, like humans, to the unique fivefold symmetry we see today.