A Wondrous Tale of a Sperm Tail

Abstract

What does this sperm tail tale teach us about the connectedness of the biological world? What could be more compelling evidence for the continuity of the tree of life than the amazing conservation of the genes of the sperm tail in so many distantly related organisms? We find the same proteins are recognizable in the sperm of humans, rats, mice, fish, sea urchins, and even Chlamydomonas, a green plant! Creationists fret that Darwin’s theory of evolution reduces us to the descendants of apes. Sperm tail researchers have glimpsed a more humbling truth; we are the direct linear descendants of pond scum.