Platypus Genome Explains Animal's Peculiar Features; Holds Clues To Evolution Of Mammals
Posted on 05/07/2008 10:44:35 AM PDT by blam
Platypus genome is as weird as its looks
18:00 07 May 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Emma Young
It's part-reptile, part-mammal, part-bird – and totally unique. Two centuries after European scientists deemed a dead specimen so outlandish it had to be a fake, the bizarre genetic secrets of Australia's platypus has been laid bare.
Platypuses lay eggs and produce venom like some reptiles, but they sport furry coats and feed their young with milk like mammals. The odd creatures are classed as monotremes, with only one close relative – the echidna.
But as primitive mammals that share the same ancestor as humans, a study of the animal's genome can improve biologists' understanding of how mammals evolved, while illuminating the platypus's strange physiology.
Wesley Warren at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, led the international team that sequenced the platypus genome. As expected, they found an amalgam of some ancestral reptile and some newer mammalian features. But there were also surprises.
Ancient milk
And while the gene that the human sex-determining gene evolved from is present in the platypus genome, it seems to have nothing to do with sex determination. So, that function must have evolved after the platypus split from our common ancestor, about 166 million years ago.
However, by that time, milk production was well-evolved. The platypus has the same repertoire of milk protein genes as a cow or a human. Clearly, milk evolved long before we evolved to give birth to live offspring, says team member Jenny Graves at the Australian National University in Canberra.
The team also investigated the genes for the platypus toxin, which males deliver via a barbed spur on their heel. While the toxin is similar to a snake's – adapted from natural neurotransmitters and other proteins –
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
Carolyn
But fossils have been found!
See #20.
How convenient. We study the similarities of EXISTING species and then declare the existence of those similarities PROVES evolution. And we can conveniently do away with that horribly unreliable fossil evidence.
>>God doesn’t make mistakes. The Platypus and Echidna are just examples of him thumbing his nose at Darwinists.
Actually, it shows that God has a real sense of human. I’ll bet He ROFLHAO everytime one of these genuises makes some startling “discovery”. Then again, maybe He’s trying to find the angel in charge of brains.
BTW, the Echidna has a four-headed penis, according to the article. No jokes, please - it’s too easy.
I think He made the platypus as the first joke to test Eve's sense of humor...as if cold weather and Adam wasn't enough to make her laugh. :)
Knuckles, the Echidna..
See post 20.
Sure, explain what?
Carolyn
The fossil record was useful because we could compare anatomical features of various extinct animals to study their evolution. There are HUNDREDS of "transitional forms" in the fossil record that meet the definition of the creationists. However, ALL species are transitional species. That's why there gone and new ones have arissen.
Anatomical features are physical representations of the genes (phenotypes)that produce them. When looking at the genetic information directly, we are looking at the recipe for a specific species. We no longer need to look at imperfect accidentally preserved specimens.
Please see 32
Similarity does not prove evolution. If a scientist who had never seen a dog of any sort were presented with the skeletons of a chihuahua, an English bulldog, and an Irish wolfhound, he would immediately declare them to be three separate and distinct species.
How does that establish that the platypus and humans “evolved from the same ancestor” as the article claims?
Fixed it for you. The duck bill is a dead giveaway.
Carolyn
"Platypus" is from Greek platys, "wide," and pous, "foot."
"Echidna" is the Greek word meaning "viper" or "adder."
ME: i agree, but that is pretty much the whole TOE in a nutshell...
YOU:
A nice story but there is absolutely no evidence that the platypus evolved from anything. Not one fossil of a platypus-like (but not a platypus) creature has ever been found.
amazing how a similar design can fool folks who insist on believing man-made fairy tales, under the guise of science and an elitest ‘we are smarter than the great unwashed, therefore listen to what we say’
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