Wayne Stollings wrote:
Ahhhh, that makes more sense. The research was not into accurate animal lineage, but the deviation in DNA found was connected to changes after certain points giving some lineage information.
more precisely it is the process of mapping the gene locations in different animals that requires bizarre and often cruel tests to figure out where each gene is in different species. Often there are key species to test and most or all of the species in a family will have the newly discovered gene location in the same area as a previously-known gene. The mouse is a good model because so many of the genes have already been mapped so there are lots of possible near-by genes to choose from that might be known in other animals. Human genome mapping is also accomplished through medical records... if you want to study ear genes... find a family with unusual ears and look for differences from normal and voila... you likely have located the spot on the human genome responsible for ear development. Note also that primates and rodents are quite close genetically so this is early research... later tests will be on other species. You will find lots of funding for platypus breeding efforts is from evolutionist organizations. They really want to map platypus genes as platypus-like ancestors are more like today's platypuses then the other egg-laying mammals, the echidna species (who were a more recent offshoot of platypus-like ancestors) but of course they cannot be doing vivisection stuff on an endangered species.