Wednesday, May 4, 2016

Ancient mammal lineage identified

A joint project by the University of Illinois and the University of Puerto Rico sequenced the mitochondrial genome of the Hispaniolan solenodon, a shrew-like venomous mammal found in the Dominican Republic.  They found that the solenodons are the last surviving members of a mammal lineage that diverged from the other mammals before the extinction of the dinosaurs.  Currently the Hispaniolan solenodon is endangered because of human interference causing habitat loss and predation by domestic pets like cats and dogs.


I found this interesting because just last week we were talking about solenodons in my poisonous and venomous animals class, and now here is a news story about solenodon genetics.  I also thought it was interesting that even though they look so much like shrews, solenodons and shrew are not closely related at all - at least not since the time of the dinosaurs.  This could mean that shrews and solenodons both exhibit well-preserved ancestral characteristics or that the two families underwent a lot of convergent evolution.

4 comments:

  1. This is so cool to read about because I love animals and had no idea that this one even existed. I hope the communities in the Dominican Republic try to save this species so it can be more closely studied and won't go extinct.

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  2. This is really something that the Dominican Republic should look into. Personally, I have never knew about this animal and if it had ever existed but hope the animal doesn't go extinct. In recent years we have seen many endangered species going extinct. We need to save these species.

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  3. I have never heard of this animal before I read this article, however I hope that they do whatever it takes to save the species.

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  4. I always enjoy hearing about new species scientists discover because we have been on this planet for so long you would think we have found every type of animal. It is also sad to hear that they are endangered after its discovery.

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