November 13, 2024
A new study led by an Iowa State University evolutionary biologist described for the first time the three-dimensional architecture of turtle genomes, which fold in a configuration unlike any other animal observed so far.
“It’s possible this is the ancestral condition of amniotes, from which mammals, birds and reptiles evolved in different patterns. The turtles may be showing us what existed at the beginning, shedding light on the evolution of vertebrate genomes.”
~ Nicole Valenzuela, professor of Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology
