Scientists Uncover Common Ancestor of All Mammals

JonB

Don't Take Crap from Life
Sep 16, 2012
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Scientists Uncover Common Ancestor of All Mammals



A powerful new database enable scientists' research into man's origins.

Using a new database of genetic traits, a group of scientists have discovered that humankind's most common ancestor with other placental mammals was a rat-sized animal with a long tail that likely lived on insects. Over the course of a six year study, the scientists built a model of the mammalian family tree that included a huge number of traits - like skeletal shape, teeth, internal organs, and fur patterns - and then used it to determine what a common ancestor possibly looked like. That ancestor came down to a fossil called Prontungulatum donnae, which was such an unloved creature that it didn't even have a common nickname, but turns out to be the creature that came before placental mammals, from elephants to human beings. The research included both genetic data from DNA and where in the fossil record a creature appeared to determine where in the family tree the creature resides.

Dr. Maureen O'Leary, the report's principal author, told the New York Times that "The findings were not a total surprise, but it's an important discovery because it relies on lots of information from fossils and also molecular data. Other scientists, at least a thousand, some from other countries, are already signing up to use MorphoBank." MorphoBank [http://morphobank.org/] is a publicly accessible database of genetic traits and morphology. It's a great tool for scientists, including both data and images of living and extinct animals. Compiling data, for example, allowed the scientists to recognize that Protungulatum had a two-horned uterus and placenta where maternal blood came in contact with the membranes surrounding the fetus - just like in humans - allowing for live births. MorphoBank enabled the scientists to compare over 4,500 traits.

Some paleontologists disagree with the new date that this discovery puts on the rise of placental mammals, some 66 million years ago. A Duke University scientist, Dr. Anne Yoder, disagreed with the findings, saying that the researchers "devoted most of their analytical energy to scoring characteristics and estimating the shape of the [mammalian family] tree rather than the length of its branches." Nevertheless, Dr. Yoder did acknowledge that the study offered "a fresh perspective ... drawn from a remarkable arsenal of morphological data." The divide between paleontologists and geneticists on the rise of mammals is widely acknowledged. The study was published in the February 8th issue of the journal Science [http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6120/662.abstract].

Source: New York Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/science/common-ancestor-of-mammals-plucked-from-obscurity.html?_r=0]
Image: Carl Buell [http://www.carlbuell.com/]


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F'Angus

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Nov 18, 2009
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Well that little guy just looks plain awesome. Good to know we all evolved from cute little rat dudes. :)
 

Remus

Reprogrammed Spambot
Nov 24, 2012
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This explains why honeybadgers are so mean. 66 million years of pure survival instinct.
 

PunkRex

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Feb 19, 2010
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<---(Trainee Palaeontologist) Dem darn geneter'sists, always spit'n on ar good work!
 
Sep 14, 2009
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teqrevisited said:
Reminds me of someone I used to know.
oh what happened? did they cut you off perhaps? or did they stoop so low?


OT: As much as i respect science and love it, it's just weird thinking of this as a "common ancestor", especially fuck all that long ago.
 

TakeyB0y2

A Mistake
Jun 24, 2011
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Well, we do medical testing on rats due to similar... Something. DNA? Anatomy? Someone correct my stupid brain.

Soooo, with that in mind, I guess it's not all that surprising.
 

Thedutchjelle

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Mar 31, 2009
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TakeyB0y2 said:
Well, we do medical testing on rats due to similar... Something. DNA? Anatomy? Someone correct my stupid brain.

Soooo, with that in mind, I guess it's not all that surprising.
Because they're mammals, like humans, so results in them are comparable to what could happen in humans. Not in all cases obviously, but in a lot.

They're also small, easily breedable with large litter sizes, not very high maintenance and low on the cuddling-factor.
 

Atrocious Joystick

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May 5, 2011
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Well shit. Black, white, penguin, polar bear, elephant, whale. We all used to be insect munching rat dudes hiding from flesh eating monster birds. Hakuna matata.

Guess we won in the end though, mothafuckin' space-rocks equalized the playing field and now we eat the birds. Like the damn dirty apes we are.
 

iniudan

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Apr 27, 2011
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TakeyB0y2 said:
Well, we do medical testing on rats due to similar... Something. DNA? Anatomy? Someone correct my stupid brain.

Soooo, with that in mind, I guess it's not all that surprising.
Mostly because rat are the domesticated mammal, who breed the most and fastest, that we have.
 

iniudan

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Apr 27, 2011
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Atrocious Joystick said:
Well shit. Black, white, penguin, polar bear, elephant, whale. We all used to be insect munching rat dudes hiding from flesh eating monster birds. Hakuna matata.

Guess we won in the end though, mothafuckin' space-rocks equalized the playing field and now we eat the birds. Like the damn dirty apes we are.
Penguin are bird, their common ancestor with other birds would be a bipedal dinosaur, not a rat like creature.
 

NightmareWarden

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Jul 2, 2011
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It is hard for me to imagine a bat coming from that thing, but I'll buy it. I wonder if there is an actual tree showing all of life set up in a tree showing predicted and confirmed ancestors... It would probably be 3D because of how bloody huge it would be, but I can't wait for a full catalog to be compiled and converted into a picture just to show the true hugeness of how much life there has been so far.
 

thiosk

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Sep 18, 2008
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ridiculous assertion by scientwits


Ahem.