Yet another missed prediction made by the chance & necessity theory of evolution. The Tuatara is one of the slowest evolving animals we know of – stable in form for tens of millions of years after it separated from early dinosaurs. The neo-Darwinian theory of evolution predicted that its rate of molecular (DNA) evolution would likewise be very slow. Many things about the Tuatara are slow. It grows very slowly, its metabolism is very slow, it thrives in cold (for a reptile) temperatures, it reproduces only once every 2 to 5 years, and doesn’t reach sexual maturity until 10 to 15 years of age. Yet when research was conducted into the rate its DNA changes it was found to be the among the fastest known among all vertebrates.
Tuatara, the fastest evolving animal
New DNA research has questioned previous notions about the evolution of the tuatara
In a study of New Zealand’s “living dinosaur” the tuatara, evolutionary biologist, and ancient DNA expert, Professor David Lambert and his team from the Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution recovered DNA sequences from the bones of ancient tuatara, which are up to 8000 years old. They found that, although tuatara have remained largely physically unchanged over very long periods of evolution, they are evolving – at a DNA level – faster than any other animal yet examined. The research will be published in the March issue of Trends in Genetics.
“What we found is that the tuatara has the highest molecular evolutionary rate that anyone has measured,” Professor Lambert says. Read More ›