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Kiwi Genetically Closer to Extinct Elephant Birds Than to the Emu
"A new study by the University of Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD), has solved a 150-year-old evolutionary mystery about the origins of the giant flightless 'ratite' birds, such as the emu and ostrich, which are found across the southern continents. This group contains some of the world's largest birds - such as the extinct giant moa of New Zealand and elephant birds of Madagascar. ... [A]ncient DNA extracted from bones of two elephant birds held by the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, has revealed a close genetic connection with the kiwi, despite the striking differences in geography, morphology and ecology between the two." Which means that the emu is not, as conventional wisdom has long held, the kiwi's closest link. Here's more on the research from the University of Adelaide.
...stuff that matters?
Had to read this twice before I realised they weren't talking about New Zealanders in general.
Ok, having read several of these stories now, I'm calling bullshit on that one study a while back that said DNA would only last a few hundred years. We've got partial DNA matches from giant elephant birds and woolly mammoths and etc. Now where the heck is my Jurassic Park?
This changes everything!
The next time some idiot says, "Without government support, we wouldn't have any science!!!" point out this shit.
As if all government "investment" is NASA-level research right? (Hey, it gave us billion dollar tang ;-).
Does anyone actually think Adelaide's Australian Centre for Ancient DNA (ACAD) sounds like a good way to allocate our scarce resources? And are they willing to pay for it themselves?
It seems silly to compare a kiwi to an ostrich. What's next, comparing bananas to snakes?
...once upon a time.
The sad thing about both the moa and the elephant bird is that these marvelous creatures were both doing fine up until a few hundred years ago. Unfortunately they both tasted a bit too much like chicken to our ancestors.
And here I was looking forward to an argument about how large birds and delicious fuzzy brown fruit are NOT in fact closely related.
story
Yea, that 100 year thing has been known to be wrong for a while now. They have actual DNA from a T-Rex from 68 million years ago. Not common, but it happens on rare occasions.
There is also a guy trying to "clone" T-Rex from chickes by messing with the protiens as the chicken develops in the egg. I believe he has gotten teeth and a bigger tail from chickens doing this, just to prove its "somewhat possible".
Maybe we can get enough DNA to bring back these big birds. But then again it seems like our society screws things up. Remember the ostrich craze? People spent huge sums to get ostriches under the theory that an ostrich ranch was the next big thing. Supposedly businesses just could not get enough ostrich parts and the meat was going to be a big seller as well. The price of an ostrich passed 80K.. But none of us are seeing ostrich meat at the markets. I wonder how many millions were lost on the ostrich scams. The earth worm scam preceded the ostrich scam. People invested a lot of money getting supplies to start farming worms in warehouses. they were told that that the shampoo industry used protein from worms and all were told they could make a fortune with the worms doing the work.
If kiwis are related to the much bigger elephant birds, that might explain why they lay such ridiculously big eggs - they've shrunk but their eggs haven't caught up yet.
Radio NZ did a 40 minute interview with evolutionary biologist Alan Cooper (the lead researcher) on Saturday. It is well worth a listen if you've got the time.