The Evolution of the Human Placenta

Power and Schulkin reveal the amazing evolution of the human placenta—and in so doing show how each of our lives began.

As the active interface of the most biologically intimate connection between two living organisms, a mother and her fetus, the placenta is crucial to human evolution and survival. Michael L. Power and Jay Schulkin explore the more than 100 million years of evolution that led to the human placenta and, in so doing, they help unravel the mysteries of human life's first moment...