ecofriend.org

Dinosaur bone-genomes surprise scientists

dino bones 9The new finding of dino bones surprisingly reveals that the genomes of both the birds and the dinosaurs are short, defying the earlier fining that relatively shorter genomes were associated with flight, researchers now say.

The distinction between birds and the dinosaurs from which they evolved is getting even murkier. The genomes (complete DNA sequences) of both groups are short, researchers now say.

According to old finding, birds possess shorter genomes than other vertebrates, or backboned animals with the length of average bird genome being 1.45 billion base pairs. Bats too have short genomes, which is about 2.25 billion base pairs.

But, human genomes are another billion base pairs longer. The flightless birds too generally have long genomes compared to flying birds.

But, according to the new finding, the shorter genomes of birds originated in saurischian dinosaurs. This is the dinosaur-group from which birds evolved which includes Tyrannosaurus rex.

Thus, short genomes should be taken as a characteristic of dinosaurs, and not birds or flying animals. This category of dinosaurs includes the killer theropod dinosaurs. Chris Organ of Harvard University and his colleagues making this thinking complicated, told LiveScience,

Birds just inherit that character like they have inherited other dinosaurian traits, like feathers.

Today's Top Articles:

Scroll to Top