Evolution of Immunity and the Invertebrates "Article Summery" Name: "Immunity and the Invertebrates" Periodical: Scientific American Nov, 1996 Author: Gregory Beck and Gail S. Habicht Pages: 60 - 71 Total The complex immune systems of humans and other mammals evolved over quite a long time - in some rather surprising ways. In 1982 a Russian zoologist named Elie Metchnikoff noticed a unique property of starfish larva. When he inserted a foreign object through it's membrane, tiny cells would try to ingest the invader through the process of phagocytosis. It was already known that phagocytosis occurred in specialized