News
Peterson researches turtle evolution
By
Casey Aylward
| July 25, 2011
New genetic research has potentially cracked the long unsolved mystery of the turtle's evolutionary origins by determining that turtles and lizards have a close common ancestor, according to biology professor Kevin Peterson. Peterson, who coauthored the study published in the July 2011 issue of Biology Letters, said he and his colleagues used a new methodology that involved analysis of microRNAs short regulatory genetic molecules found in cells that develop over millions of years of evolution instead of fossil evidence, as previous researchers have done. "My interest is trying to address difficult phylogenetic problems and that would include turtles," Peterson said.
