From ScienceDaily:
Evolution is often thought of as a gradual remodeling of the genome, the genetic blueprints for building an organism. But in some instances it might be more appropriate to call it an overhaul. Over the past 100 million years, the human lineage has lost one-fifth of its DNA, while an even greater amount was added, report scientists at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Until now, the extent to which our genome has expanded and contracted had been underappreciated, masked by its relatively constant size over evolutionary time.
Humans aren’t the only ones with elastic genomes. A new look at a virtual zoo-full of animals, from hummingbirds to bats to elephants, suggests that many vertebrate genomes have the same accordion-like properties.
“I didn’t expect this at all,” says the study’s senior author Cédric Feschotte, Ph.D., professor of human genetics. “The dynamic nature of these genomes had remained hidden because of the remarkable balance between gain and loss.” More.
Hmmmm. It gets more remarkable all the time, doesn’t it? Almost like there was some sort of design of life…
See also: “Evolution of genetic code” article illustrates fundamental problem
and
DNA has hidden code for making new gene pieces
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