Carlos Infante, Assistant Professor of Integrative Biology, and colleagues recently published the paper "A novel enhancer near the Pitx1 gene influences development and evolution of pelvic appendages in vertebrates” in eLife. Vertebrate pelvic reduction is a classic example of repeated evolution. Recurrent loss of pelvic appendages in sticklebacks has previously been linked to natural mutations in a pelvic enhancer that maps upstream of Pitx1. The sequence of this upstream PelA enhancer is not conserved to mammals, so the team surveyed a large region surrounding the mouse Pitx1 gene for other possible hind limb control sequences. In  this work, Infante and colleagues identify a new pelvic enhancer, PelB, that maps downstream rather than upstream of Pitx1.