Emiley+M.

=Ectrodactyly: a genetic disorder=
 * Post Number 1: ** //October 11th 2013//
 * Post Number 1: ** //October 11th 2013//

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Ectrodactyly is an uncommon genetic disorder that can be affected by gene defects resulting in the fingers and toes connecting in a V-shape form. Common names for the syndrome can be split hand, cleft hand or lobster claw hand ===== The uncommon syndrome of Ectrodactyly where the feet and hands are in a V-shape Form

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It is a rare form of “congenital disorder” is where the developmental of the hand are disturbed. “Ectrodactyly can also be caused by deletions, translocations, and inversions in chromosome 7” the gene syndrome can result in the stunted growth. =====

The cause of Ectrodactlyly for what is known lies within the genetics. The inheritance is most likely going to happen with a 70% chance you could possibly inherit the syndrome.
//This is a photo of a family all with Ectrodactyly. Four children and one father. Ectrodactyly is a very genetic disorder if parents express the symptoms first.//

Cleft hand can be spontaneous mutation that can happen during pregnancy. The syndrome is still a medical mystery where scientist still don’t know exactly why, they only know that the syndrome happen during pregnancy and involves ones chromosome 7.

A Picture of which chromosome Ectrodactyly effects.

People with Ectrodactlyly surgery is an option, to have their fingers and toes separated. Typically in most cases the tendons and nerves still develop and the separation of fingers/toes do have the potential to work perfectly normal. //This is an X-ray of hands with Ectrodactyly. As you can seen all required joints and bones are still present with people that have Ectrodactyly .//

Video of Ectrodactyly media type="youtube" key="PK3cnNGfsmY" width="560" height="315" This video is a small and short video about someone and their family dealing with Ectrodactyly. Her (mother) and her two sons all have ectrodactyly and the lives they live with it. I choose this video because it gives you more of a personal side of the story and gives you some incite into their lives.

**Futher Reading into Ectrodactyly**
Additional Sites: > []
 * 1) Blog post from a women that found out her child would be born with Ectrodactyly:
 * 1) ABC news presents a small segment of the syndrome of Ectrodactly: []
 * 2) Health Line goes into detail about what is Ectrodactyly and details about the syndrome: []
 * 3) A case report of a 6 year with Ectrodactyly: []

Sources Used, [|__http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ectrodactyly__], [], [] [] []

=** Post Number: 2 **=
 * December 1, 2013 **

=** The Evolution of Lizards Into Snakes **=

The evolution of lizards to snakes

With over 3,000 different species we know very little the origins of where snakes have come from. Obviously snakes evolved from land based lizards (theory). Most snakes are very small and fragile and there ancestors are even more fragile and smaller discovered in fossils.
 * Caption**: //The line of amphibians, with similar family relating back to the origins of snakes//

Paleontologists have discovered snake fossils as far back as 150 million years ago, they have also found snake like amphibians 300 million years ago. Snakes could possibly also descend from marine reptiles called Mosasaurs (water lizards) that appeared in the earth's seas around 100 million years ago. The Changing of Snakes
 * Caption**: //A found fossil of long extinct snakes spinal cord, replicating a modern day snakes body//

So, for the reptiles to change into snakes it had to start with the gradual changing of the reptiles limbs to become shorter and shorter until there was no more need for the using of their limbs. Paleontologists first idea was that snakes ancestors were land based. These former ancestors only had two hind legs that supported themselves to move around with. They have been identified them back to the Cretaceous period, which then were equipped with stubby and small hind legs.
 * Caption:** //this is an image of what I assume would be the body of a snake ancestor.//

But then Paleontologist found fossils in the middle east that were in water suggesting that snakes as a whole evolved from water-dwelling reptiles, most likely the sleek, fierce mosasaurs. But this two-legged snake was clearly land-based, and appears in the fossil record at roughly the same time as its Middle Eastern cousins. **Caption:** //this image is of a Mossaur, this is a water reptile that could also be the ancestor of snakes// So, intern the exact evolution if the snakes are not yet identified but they are much disputed in where exactly they evolved.

**Video**: The evolution of snakes
media type="youtube" key="6vgPujX2RYw" width="560" height="315" align="center"

This is a small and very informative video stating the facts about the signs that evolution took place in our animal known today as snakes. These modern day snakes show signs of the evolution that had taken place thousands upon thousands of years ago. Addition sites []
 * The evolution of snakes, with more ideas about the evolution of snakes:
 * This link takes you to a site where they talk about the movements of a snakes body and how important they are: []
 * This link will tell exactly why snakes lost their legs in the first place: []

Sources used: [] [] [] []