Thursday, May 13, 2010

More genetic (genome) similarities

More similarities at the genome level between pterosaurs and birds.

http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/5/1/47.abstract

"The two living groups of flying vertebrates, birds and bats, both have constricted genome sizes compared with their close relatives. But nothing is known about the genomic characteristics of pterosaurs, which took to the air over 70 Myr before birds and were the first group of vertebrates to evolve powered flight. Here, we estimate genome size for four species of pterosaurs and seven species of basal archosauromorphs using a Bayesian comparative approach. Our results suggest that small genomes commonly associated with flight in bats and birds also evolved in pterosaurs, and that the rate of genome-size evolution is proportional to genome size within amniotes, with the fastest rates occurring in lineages with the largest genomes."

This research and conclusion are very interesting. Birds and pterosaurs both had "small genomes".

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