Centipede Genome Sequencing Reveals Animal Has 7K Fewer Genes Than Humans

A team of scientists has sequenced the genome of the centipede for the first time and found that it has around 15,000 genes -- about 7,000 fewer than humans do. Arthropods -- the most species-rich group of animals on Earth -- are divided into four classes, including insects, crustaceans, chelicerates and myriapods. The latter group, which includes centipedes, is the only class for which no genome had yet been sequenced, scientists said in a study, published in the journal PLOS Biology.