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Updated: Mar 31, 2026

Perspectives on Neuroscience
Published on: July 31, 2007
The genealogy of genealogy of neurons
1The Whitney Laboratory of Marine Biosciences and Department of Neuroscience and McKnight Brain Institute; University of Florida ; Gainesville, FL USA.
Abstract:
Two scenarios of neuronal evolution (monophyly and polyphyly) are discussed in the historical timeline starting from the 19th century. The recent genomic studies on Ctenophores re-initiated a broad interest in the hypotheses of independent origins of neurons. However, even earlier work on ctenophores suggested that their nervous systems are unique in many aspects of their organization and a possibility of the independent origin of neurons and synapses was introduced well before modern advances in genomic biology.
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