Tweetie Bird is descended from T. rex
Real science is for the birds...har!
The seemingly harmless visitors to your garden bird
table have a more fearsome past than most of us realise. By analysing the
detailed structure of proteins taken from fossils, scientists have confirmed the notion that our modern day
feathered friends share a close ancestry with T. rex and
co.
Other evidence has pointed to dinosaurs being closely related to birds, but this is the first time sophisticated molecular sequencing techniques have been used to confirm the idea. The researchers found that Tyrannosaurus rex is more closely related to chickens and ostriches than it is to the alligator or the anolis lizard.
Dr Chris Organ at Harvard University, part of the team that carried out the work, said that the study was proof that intact proteins from fossils could be used to understand the detailed relationships between extinct and living species.
“The idea that birds are a group of feathered flying dinosaurs is not controversial. But part of the advance here is just showing that it’s possible,” he said. “It has the potential to resolve parts of the evolutionary tree that are muddy, that we can’t resolve right now.”
Now, if they just get round to confirming my personal conviction that nutballs will eventually become an evolutionary dead end…
Thanks, K B, Mark
Other evidence has pointed to dinosaurs being closely related to birds, but this is the first time sophisticated molecular sequencing techniques have been used to confirm the idea. The researchers found that Tyrannosaurus rex is more closely related to chickens and ostriches than it is to the alligator or the anolis lizard.
Dr Chris Organ at Harvard University, part of the team that carried out the work, said that the study was proof that intact proteins from fossils could be used to understand the detailed relationships between extinct and living species.
“The idea that birds are a group of feathered flying dinosaurs is not controversial. But part of the advance here is just showing that it’s possible,” he said. “It has the potential to resolve parts of the evolutionary tree that are muddy, that we can’t resolve right now.”
Now, if they just get round to confirming my personal conviction that nutballs will eventually become an evolutionary dead end…
Thanks, K B, Mark
Posted: Mon - April 28, 2008 at 01:20 PM