New 'Tree of life' places turtles in line with dinosaurs
Researchers believe that turtles are more closely linked to dinosaurs and birds than to lizards.
Using a next generation sequencing technology, authors now place turtles in the newly named group "Archelosauria" with their closest relatives: birds, crocodiles, and dinosaurs.
"New genetic sequencing technique called Ultra Conserved Elements (UCE) improve our ability to help resolve decades-long evolutionary mysteries, giving us a clear picture of how animals like turtles evolved on our constantly-changing planet," said Brian Simison, director of the California Academy of Sciences' Center for Comparative Genomics (CCG) that analysed the study's massive amount of data.
Scientists suspect the new group will be the largest group of vertebrates to ever receive a new scientific name.
"The new 'tree of life' is consistent with time and space patterns we have gathered from the fossil record. These new testing techniques help reconcile the information from DNA and fossils, making us confident that we've found the right tree," noted study co-author and renowned turtle expert James Parham.
"Calling this is an exciting new era of sequencing technology is an understatement," says Brian Simison, PhD, Director of the Academy's Center for Comparative Genomics (CCG) that analyzed the study's massive amount of data. The CCG is a state-of-the-art facility comprised of a sequencing lab, frozen DNA collection, and computing resources that serves as the Academy's core genetic center. Established in the summer of 2008, the CCG continues to refine Academy research--including new turtle findings--on a global, evolutionary scale.
"In the space of just five years, reasonably affordable studies using DNA sequencing have advanced from using only a handful of genetic markers to more than 2,000--an unbelievable amount of DNA," adds Simison. "New techniques like UCE dramatically improve our ability to help resolve decades-long evolutionary mysteries, giving us a clear picture of how animals like turtles evolved on our constantly-changing planet."
