Abstract
Ctenophores are descendants of an early branching basal metazoan lineage, which may have evolved neurons and muscles independently from other animals. In this issue of the Journal of Morphology, Norekian and Moroz present a study (pp. 1466‐1477) in which they mapped and tracked the development of the neural and muscular elements in the early hatching cydippid larvae, as well as adult Mnemiopsis leidyi as representative species of ctenophores. They conclude that integration of multiple effectors occurs nonsynaptically using either paracrine secretions or alternative integrative systems such as electrical coupling using pannexins/innexins or both. This mode of intercellular communication might be ancestral and present in the nerveless ancestors of all Metazoa.
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