DNA Studies Suggest Emperor Is Most Ancient of Penguins

Posted on by Lori Jia

The New York Times, October 11, 2005

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Penguins are some of the most improbable animals on the planet. They have wings and feathers but cannot fly. They are not fish, but they have been recorded as deep as 1,755 feet underwater. And the most improbable is the emperor penguin, which waddles across 70 miles of Antarctic ice to reach its breeding grounds. New research on penguin DNA suggests that the emperor also has the most ancient lineage of living penguins.

Scientists have long recognized a link from penguins to petrels and albatrosses. While albatrosses have more conventional bird bodies, they share subtle traits with penguins, like the arrangement of beak bones. They are generally considered the closest living relatives of penguins.

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A 70-Million-Year March of the Penguins

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I’ve got a piece in tomorrow’s New York Times on new research into the evolution of penguins. There’s new work going on with penguin DNA and penguin fossils, such as this lovely 60-million-year old critter from New Zealand. It stood upright like living penguins, but still had wings it could bend at the elbow. In other words, just what you’d expect as flying ancestors evolved into full-blown penguins. While it’s amusing to have a little fun with pundits who try to use penguins as role models for family values, writing about real science is always more satisfying.

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Florida, Where The Living Is Contradictory

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When it comes to evolution, the nation’s attention is focused these days on Dover, Pennsylvania, where parents are suing the local board of education for introducing creationism into the classroom. It’s certainly an important case, but if you really want to get a sense of what’s at stake in the struggle over evolution, I suggest you turn your attention south, to the sunshine state. Florida is trying to have it both ways when it comes to creationism, and sooner or later something’s going to have to give.

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