Ancient Penguin Reveals Evoutionary Insight

marco_polo

Having discovered and precisely dated the bones of a 44,000 year old penguin, because the specimen was so well preserved researchers were then able to compare the results of traditional DNA dating techniques to the more accurate carbon dating method. The results suggest that DNA mutates much faster than expected, resulting in underestimates of between 200 and 600% for certain specimens.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091110135411.htm

The findings raise doubts about the accuracy of many evolutionary rates based on conventional types of genetic analysis.

"Some earlier work based on small amounts of DNA indicated this same problem, but now we have more conclusive evidence based on the study of almost an entire mitochondrial genome," said Dee Denver, an evolutionary biologist with the Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing at Oregon State University.

"The observations in this report appear to be fundamental and should extend to most animal species," he added. "We believe that traditional DNA dating techniques are fundamentally flawed, and that the rates of evolution are in fact much faster than conventional technologies have led us to believe."

Galvasean

Mutations occuring more frequently would go a long way to explain how organisms can evolve quickly over relatively short periods of time.

Pygoscelis adeliae, aint he cute?