Biologists have discovered that bombesin, a neurohormone controlling appetite in humans, also regulates feeding in starfish, revealing its ancient evolutionary origin dating back over 500 million years. 

The study not only sheds light on the deep evolutionary roots of appetite regulation but also suggests potential applications for managing starfish invasions in shellfish farms impacted by climate change. 

Alongside weight-loss inducing drugs such as Ozempic, compounds that mimic the action of bombesin are in development for treatment of obesity. 

A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography at the University of Oxford, the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, the Jane Goodall Institute in Tanzania, the University of Algarve and the University of Porto in Portugal, and the University of Leipzig, have discovered that chimpanzees living in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania employ a degree of engineering when making their tools, deliberately choosing plants that provide materials that produce more flexible tools for termite fishing.