Ask A Scientist© Zoology Archive

name        Darren
status      other
age         30s

Question -  Is it true that babies can be born with a
congenital throwback i.e. born with fish gill/s and if so what is it
called?

All mammals have gill slits in their very early fetal development. We call
this ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny..where the development of the
individual goes through some of the characteristics of the animals lower in
the evolutional development.

When we look at early fetal development of various animals we see all having
gill slits, and tails.

PF
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