CIIMAR researchers Filipe Castro, Raul Valente and Raquel Ruivo found out that the pineal gland, responsible for the production of melatonin – the sleep hormone, is vestigial in several mammals such as the sloths.
CIIMAR researchers Filipe Castro, Raul Valente and Raquel Ruivo found out that the pineal gland, responsible for the production of melatonin – the sleep hormone, is vestigial in several mammals such as the sloths.
The study now published by researchers from the Interdisciplinary Center for Marine and Environmental Research of the University of Porto (CIIMAR-UP) used the power of the study of genomes, namely in sloths, to discover which organs are actually functional or vestigial. This work also tells us how the environment helps to shape its functioning, taking as a case study the pineal gland. Check this study here.
