This at least is the conclusion of a landmark recent paper in the journal Nature, which solved a lingering puzzle about starfish anatomy by turning to the enigmatic echinoderm's genes. Echinoderms ...

Is there a molecular axis hidden under all this weird anatomy and what is its role in a starfish forming a pentaradial body plan?" To figure it out, they used a new form of genetic sequencing ...

It sounds like a children's game or an absurd question: Where is the starfish's head ... the scientists relied on molecular studies. Where anatomy had hitherto failed, genes have made it possible ...